Mills-Kiwanis Park gets $30,000 in renovations courtesy of Cascade Health Alliance
Contact: Maria Ramirez
Cascade Health Alliance staff will spend a morning making much-needed renovations to Mills-Kiwanis Park, including new picnic tables, park benches, and improvements to the basketball court.
As part of celebrations for the 25th anniversary of its parent company, Cascade Comprehensive Care, Cascade Health Alliance (CHA) donated $30,000 towards the park renovations, in addition to staff time.
"As a benefit corporation, we want to do something bigger than ourselves that has a tremendous impact and makes a huge difference to the community and neighborhoods that we serve," said CHA's President and CEO Tayo Akins. "We hope our civic engagement can help build a more cohesive, safer, stronger community and increase the social network between communities and neighborhoods."
CHA has been managing the physical, behavioral, and dental health needs of its members since becoming a coordinated care organization (CCO); the company serves more than 17,000 Oregon Health Plan (Medicaid) members in Klamath County.
This park project is an important aspect of CHA's dedication to the community, as well as the company's commitment to having a positive impact on social determinants of health. Social determinants of health include poverty, homelessness, substance abuse, access to food, education, workforce development, and more.
CHA has been working closely with staff from the City of Klamath Falls parks department to determine the best ways to make improvements to the park.
"We appreciate the public-private partnership with the parks department to ensure this park improvement happens," Akins said. "The CHA team is excited about the opportunity to enhance social connections with our time, energy and effort to improve this park."
The park renovations will include a picnic area complete with concrete pad for new picnic tables, barbeques, food prep tables, benches and trashcans, bike racks and landscaping, the addition of mulch beneath the existing swing set, and various improvements to the basketball court, including new posts, backboards and nets, and freshly painted court lines.
CHA staff will be working at the park on June 29 starting at 10 a.m. Media is invited to attend; a check presentation will take place at 10 a.m., followed by work on the other projects.
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