Seven years after a group of Kiwanis volunteers set out to build a playground nobody would be excluded from, ground is being broken at Second and Adams Streets in downtown Monument. Phase One of the Heart of Monument Play Park is fully funded at $767,000; its organizers want $48,000 more to finish Phase Two.
The ceremony was set for 11:30 a.m. Monday, August 10, at the site just south of Monument Community Presbyterian Church’s parking lot, according to the project’s website. What follows the shovels is a universally accessible playground — designed, its organizers say, for “the very young, senior citizens, people living with disabilities, and everybody else” — on land the church donated to the Town of Monument.
A three-way bargain
The project, in development since 2019, rests on a division of labor among three institutions. The church gave the land. The Monument Hill Kiwanis Club, a 501(c)(3) with more than 100 volunteers, led the fundraising. The town — which commissioned a site survey in December 2022 — will own, maintain and manage the finished park. Church leadership, the project’s FAQ explains, saw the donation as a contribution to the greater Monument area that also puts a playground next door to its own families.
The design came out of a planning process the organizers describe as engaging more than 25 community groups, among them Special Olympics, local autism support groups, Lewis-Palmer D38, the Tri-Lakes Chamber of Commerce, Jackson Creek Senior Living, the Penrose Library and the YMCA. The partners then hired N.E.S., a Colorado Springs landscape-architecture firm, to turn that input into a park layout meant to “have something for everyone” — the premise being that children and adults with intellectual, developmental or physical disabilities are routinely sidelined at conventional playgrounds, and that El Paso County has only a few parks built to avoid that.
Who pays for what
The construction contracts went through the town council on July 20. Resolution 45-2026 awarded $754,914 to Fisk Lawnscapes, a Colorado Springs landscaping firm, for Phase One; a second contract, for $71,355, went to National Pavement Partners for a fully ADA-compliant parking lot at Second and Adams, supported by a $100,000 federal Community Development Block Grant. The contracts total $826,268 — but that figure is not the town’s bill. Mayor Pro Tem Steve King told the Independent after the vote that Monument expects to spend about $175,000, with grants and Kiwanis fundraising covering the remainder. The town secured and will administer the grants, receive the reimbursements, and take over maintenance when the park is complete.
The money itself came from everywhere a small town keeps it. The project’s donor list runs from a top tier of $50,000-and-up contributors — an anonymous family, the Colorado Springs Health Foundation, the Disabling Barriers Foundation, Ed and Lu Ann DeValois in memory of their parents, and the three partner institutions themselves — down through the El Pomar Foundation, Scheels and the Kiwanis International Children’s Fund, to the Tri-Lakes Dynamics Rotary Club, restaurant fundraiser nights at Texas Roadhouse, Panera Bread and Parry’s Pizza, and dozens of households giving less than $100. The Kiwanis-led effort has run seven years and included, improbably, $1,000 raised from the sale of “zombie” licenses.
The last $48,000
Phase One — the playground itself and the parking lot — is fully funded, with $767,000 raised as of this week; that sum also covers part of Phase Two. The organizers say roughly $48,000 more would complete Phase Two, which adds a shade structure, a fenced toddler area and accessible exercise equipment. The project is planned in three phases overall. Its own pages give slightly different totals for the first two — $957,000 on the project overview, an estimated $986,000 in the FAQ based on the winning Fisk bid, against a target of $1,074,000 for the entire project. The project page, updated this month, anticipates a grand opening this fall.
The park at a glance
Where: Second and Adams Streets, downtown Monument, south of Monument Community Presbyterian Church
Partners: Town of Monument (owner), Monument Hill Kiwanis Club (fundraising), Monument Community Presbyterian Church (donated the land)
Phase One: Fully funded; $754,914 construction contract with Fisk Lawnscapes, plus a $71,355 ADA parking-lot contract
Still needed: About $48,000 to complete Phase Two (shade structure, toddler fence, accessible exercise equipment)
Expected opening: Fall 2026, per the project’s website
To donate: heartofmonument.org/donate — gifts go to the Monument Hill Kiwanis Club, a 501(c)(3), and are tax-deductible to the extent provided by law
The organizers give the park three goals: outdoor recreation for people with disabilities and seniors, healthy living for residents whose mobility is limited, and a regular downtown gathering place that sends foot traffic to local merchants. After seven years of fundraiser nights and memorial gifts, what stands between downtown Monument and its new park is a shade structure’s worth of donations.
Sources & further reading
The Independent’s own coverage: Monument Town Council, July 20, 2026 — the council’s approval of the Phase One and parking-lot contracts, and Mayor Pro Tem Steve King’s account of the town’s roughly $175,000 share.
Project record: Heart of Monument Play Park (homepage, project overview, FAQ and donor list) · Town of Monument play-park page
Reporting: Our Community News’s July 20 council report — the contract amounts, resolution number and contractor names.
Entities: Monument Hill Kiwanis Club · Monument Community Presbyterian Church · Fisk Lawnscapes · N.E.S. · Colorado Springs Health Foundation
Methodology
Fundraising totals ($767,000 raised, roughly $48,000 remaining for Phase Two) and the groundbreaking time and place are as stated on the Heart of Monument Play Park website, read August 10, 2026; the Independent did not attend the ceremony. The contract figures — $754,914 to Fisk Lawnscapes under Resolution 45-2026 and $71,355 to National Pavement Partners, with $100,000 in Community Development Block Grant support — are from Our Community News’s report of the July 20 town council meeting; the $826,268 combined total and Mayor Pro Tem Steve King’s description of the town’s approximately $175,000 net share are from the Independent’s own July coverage, drawn from the meeting recording and King’s statements to the Independent. The project’s own pages state differing cost totals for the first two phases ($957,000 on the project overview; an estimated $986,000 in the FAQ), and parts of the FAQ predate the current schedule; where figures conflict, each is attributed to the page that states it. The donor roll is as published on the project’s donor list, which reports gifts by tier rather than exact amounts.