On a sunny early-summer day in 2024, a crowd of park leaders and enthusiasts from across North America descended on T. T. Minor Playground in the Cherry Hill neighborhood of Seattle. In a flurry of activity, they joined Seattle parks employees to give a makeover to the playground that had become underused and underappreciated, as the adjacent T. T. Minor elementary school closed in 2009. When they were done, T. T. Minor Playground featured exciting new play equipment for kids of all ages, including students at the nearby private school focused on welcoming immigrant children.
The “grand finale,” as Seattle Parks and Recreation Superintendent Anthony-Paul (AP) Diaz put it, was a giant slide.
This scene was a Community Build, carried out during the Volunteer Service Day of City Parks Alliance’s bi-annual Greater & Greener conference. While this Community Build involved conference attendees and Seattle parks staff, Community Builds often also include local residents. They can be a key way to help restore parks and revive community interest in them.
Before a Community Build, local leaders engage residents and collect feedback on what they would like to see in their park. Then the volunteers help make it a reality.
Community engagement is crucial so that the park actually reflects local needs and values. At T. T. Minor, this meant two public meetings and other feedback opportunities. It paid off, as the revamped playground is now a magnet for the neighborhood, bringing families and local residents of all ages together.
The design ultimately chosen for T. T. Minor evokes Seattle’s verdant natural environment. The equipment was donated by playground design and manufacturing company Landscape Structures, whose staff also participated in the community build.
John Mullan is president of PlayCreation, the Landscape Structures vendor and Pacific Northwest representative who orchestrated the T. T. Minor Community Build. Mullan lives in Seattle himself. He explains that professionals collaborated with the volunteers to install equipment like monkey bars, slides, and swings. PlayCreation made sure work like digging holes was done ahead of time, so volunteers could start putting equipment up right away. Mullan sees firsthand how the renovated park has drawn people to the park and surrounding businesses.
“When the community is involved, there’s a sense of pride,” he notes. “You’re driving by with your family, and you can say, ‘Yeah, I built that slide.”
Diaz agrees that the renovations are a hit.
“Parents and kids in the community love the new equipment, especially all of the opportunities to climb,” he says. He noted that high school students like to challenge themselves on the pull-up bar, while younger kids love “the thrill of a tall tower, balancing activities, challenging places to climb.”
Along with the playground equipment, the park features a grassy field and picnic tables.
“The best-designed playgrounds are multi-generational,” says Mullan. “There’s something for little kids, for older kids, comfortable places to sit. It’s a place caregivers can take kids and have some time to relax while the kids wear themselves out. It’s really like a town hall, a place where you can go and meet your neighbors, a safe place, which is especially important in inner-city neighborhoods.”
In previous years, he notes, T. T. Minor was not a big draw for families.
“Now it is a destination,” Mullan says, “because it is so cool.”
Diaz said the city had been planning to upgrade the park, but thanks to the Community Build and equipment donations, the city saved $260,000 that could be invested in other parks.
A similar Volunteer Service Day Community Build will happen during City Parks Alliance’s Greater & Greener conference in Austin, Texas, from June 13 to 16, 2026.
“It’s a great way for us to help the attendees of the conference get to know each other better,” says Catherine Nagel, executive director of City Parks Alliance. “We have people from different cities working together to contribute to a local community. This is not just a one-day event; it’s a way for the community of park leaders to have a lasting impact and continue the great relationship we built up to and during the conference with the local host city.”
The City Parks Alliance blog on T.T. Minor Playground was written by Kari Lydersen. Kari is an assistant professor of journalism at Northwestern University and a Chicago-based journalist and author.