Women take project under wing

Park Angels

Nita Birmingham
The Post and Courier

Liam Jones, 9 months old, son of Michael and Shannon Jones, enjoys some swing time Oct. 3, 2008 at Moultrie Park. The Charleston Park Conservancy plans beautification of the park.

Nita Birmingham
The Post and Courier

The Charleston Park Conservancy is planning beautification of Moultrie Playground. Their new volunteer organization Park Angels will be involved. Photo shot Oct. 3, 2008.

Six local women have been selected as lead Park Angels in a movement to preserve and beautify Charleston parks. The effort kicks off next week with the unveiling of a conceptual plan for Colonial Lake and Moultrie Playground.

The Charleston Parks Conservancy describes the women as the new faces of its organization. South Carolina financier and philanthropist Darla Moore launched the nonprofit conservancy in 2007 with a gift of $10 million. But the organization just went public in June to seek major volunteers, who are called lead Park Angels.

The lead angels will recruit more volunteers to raise money and awareness or, for those who want a hands-on approach, physically help beautify and maintain parks.

"I can't think of anything more wonderful than creating beautiful room in a beautiful city like Charleston," lead angel Janie Larkin Miller said on a recent weekday morning as she walked her dog near Moultrie Playground.

The real beginning of the movement comes Oct. 16, Miller said. The city, the conservancy and Design Works Landscape Architecture will present conceptual plans to revamp the playground and lake on Ashley Avenue. Ongoing presentations will be given at five tents and public comments will be recorded.

The conservancy is interested in how the area can be better designed to serve more people and how the lake and playground work together, said Executive Director Jim Martin.

Two frequent visitors to the playground are 9-month-old Liam Jones and his caretaker, Deloris Crawford. Liam likes the bucket seat swings.

Crawford said she would like to see the playground brightened.

"Paint the benches colors that children like," she said.

The wooden fence surrounding the children's play area is a faded green. Painting the boards different bright colors would catch a child's eye, Crawford said.

Moultrie Playground rose to the top as a project for the conservancy because it needs work and there was already a strong base of support from the neighborhood associations, Martin said.

The conservancy paid for the conceptual plan. Martin expects the plan to be finished by the beginning of next year. Implementation is not funded.

"The city will obviously come up with some funding. We'll have to figure out where the money will come from," Martin said.

The conservancy and Park Angels can provide resources and work with the city to beautify and maintain the parks, he said. For example, there's a lot of horticultural expertise among the lead Angels.

"If you want change to occur in these communities, it comes from the people who live in the community," Martin said.

Miller hopes residents will embrace the Park Angels movement in Charleston, which she describes as the most beautiful small city in the United States.

"It deserves beautification of its parks. I also think it's a draw for people to come and live here. It's a draw for tourism," she said.

Reach Nita Birmingham at 937-5433 or nbirmingham@postandcourier.com.