Correction:
A previous version of this story misstated where an additional $150,000 for Prentiss Park would come from. It is the planning department budget.
When Tina Boyes spoke to a group of Innes Community Learning Center eighth graders this spring about their hopes to improve Kenmore’s Prentiss Park, the Ward 9 Akron City Council member was struck by their enthusiasm.
So much so that it encouraged her to enter the Akron Parks Challenge, a local competition that offers money for residents to make improvements with the help of the Akron Parks Collaborative.
Her entry came after the group of students began to make their pitch for separate park improvement funds as part of Akron Public Schools’ inaugural Changemaker Challenge program, which sought to engage students in identifying and solving problems in their communities.
In May, the group of Innes students won the $4,000 top prize, which will go toward park improvements.
Now they’ll have many multiples of that initial grant to work with. On the strength of the students’ passion, Prentiss Park was a $150,000 parks challenge winner, along with Sherbondy Hill Park.
“They were the impetus behind all of this,” Boyes said of her decision to enter the challenge. “Honestly, I think that was part of the reason this application to Akron Parks Challenge won. There was other skin in the game.”
One of those students was Makayla Bittner, a rising ninth grader at Garfield CLC who was a core part of the Changemaker Challenge team. Makayla has been outspoken about the need to fix up the park, which has prickly bushes, dilapidated basketball and tennis courts, and, despite its proximity to Innes CLC, a middle school, playground equipment meant for younger students.
Since it had been so long since Prentiss Park had been invested in, Makayla thought her group had a good chance of taking the prize. Still, when she learned in an email from Innes’ college and career academies coach that the park had won, she didn’t tell her mom for more than a day.
“I was in shock; I was just really excited,” she said. “I didn’t fathom that we won.”
The two winning parks were chosen through a multi-round process that began with 48 applications, six of them on behalf of Prentiss Park, said Bridget Ambrisco, executive director of the Akron Parks Collaborative. She said that, during Prentiss Park’s presentation as one of four finalists, Innes students led the conversation, explaining what they envisioned for the space and what it would mean to the community. She called their role “super impressive.”
“We look at the $4,000 award as leveraging this $150,000, in a way,” Ambrisco said. “Them standing up and saying, ‘We need a better space for our community’ is what made those organizations step up to apply.”
The students’ coach, Justin Plas, said the goal of the Changemaker Challenge was to help students find something they were passionate about and do it in a way that could contribute to their community. Prentiss Park being selected for additional funds helps shine a light for all students on the impact they can have when they come together, he said.
Seeing the students lead the presentation to the selection committee was a great moment for him, Plas said.
“We need to show kids all across the district that good things happen when you have a passion and pursue it,” he said. “When you hear kids’ passion and hear them care about things, it’s hard to not want to support them.”
These sorts of experiences help students see the ways in which their ideas can be impactful, Boyes said. Her son also participated in the Changemaker Challenge, at STEM Middle School, and she said watching students there and at Innes participate in the program showed it provided lessons that will long outlast any one project.
Still, she called the parks grant a “proud moment” for kids just entering high school.
“It’s great motivation to continue to think big, and that’s what we need in our neighborhoods,” Boyes said. “This is a great example of why it pays to think big.”
In addition to the Changemaker and parks challenge grant money, Boyes said, Prentiss Park also has $150,000 earmarked in the planning department’s 2025 budget, bringing the total to $304,000 if City Council approves the allocation next year. In the coming months, a committee will work with community members to see what they want done.
Students like Makayla will continue to be part of the process.
“It really shows when you have a cause like this and come together, you can actually get things done,” Makayla said. “It’s kind of sunk in, we did this. $154,000, that’s a lot of money.”
Sherbondy Hill Park, the other winner, is used by the Akron Bengals Youth Football organization for cheer and football programming for 4- through 13-year-olds. Donte Swain, president of the Akron Bengals, said he thinks having money for improvements there will help shine a light on the neighborhood. Adding seating and trails, as well as a pavilion and play area to the mowed area and parking lot, will help make the park a more inviting and useful area for families, he said.
“I’m excited, my whole organization is excited, the neighborhood is excited,” Swain said. “We’re ecstatic. I’m just happy.”