Neighborhood Groups Celebrate Tilton Park Playground Renovations with Ribbon Cutting and Live Music
West Side Grows Together (WSGT), Cool Spring Tilton Park Neighborhood Association (CSTNA), the Friends of Tilton Park, the City of Wilmington Department of Parks and Recreation, and Wilmington City Council, are excited to announce the opening of a new state of the art playground at Tilton Park. The playground is designed for folks of all ages and abilities and includes: inclusive, transparent, graduated risk and challenge, swings, slides, and a mini outdoor amphitheater. This remarkable project is the product of several years of collaboration between residents, local organizations, community leaders, city officials, and government representatives. The public is invited to attend the grand opening event held at the Tilton Park Playground near 8th and Franklin Streets on Thursday, June 22nd at 4 PM. The ribbon cutting ceremony will be held at the playground, followed by a celebration including live local music by Sug Daniels and light refreshments. The event is rain or shine.
In the neighborhood lovingly nicknamed “Tiltlandia” by its residents, the CSTNA, Friends of Tilton Park, WSGT, and residents collaborated to advocate for infrastructure improvements to the park for decades. The existing play equipment was dilapidated, outdated, and at times dangerous. In recent years, stormwater management issues compounded to render the park unusable after heavy rainfall, limiting physical activity for many of the neighborhood youth. Thomas Natoli, President of the CSTNA, remarks, “By the support of so many organizations and the community’s love of Tiltlandia, we now have a wonderful playground.”
In 2017, with support from DNREC and the City, West Side Grows Together was able to hire landscape architects to empower residents and develop a community-led playground design. In 2021, the green stormwater management portion was completed with support from the New Castle County Conservation District and State Senator Elizabeth Lockman. After years of planning, in January of 2023, the Tilton Park playground was fully renovated.
The supporters of this innovative work took great strides to leverage funding in order to implement a high quality, destination park design that directly responds to the historical flooding problems that surrounded the playground and beyond.
“I continue to be impressed and encouraged by the outpouring of support and participation by the community for projects like this one,” said Mayor Purzycki. “Tilton Park is a great source of pride for this section of the City, and neighbors have long taken a special ownership interest in keeping the park a clean and safe space for area children and families. We made this new playground a priority so that our younger residents would have a first-rate place to play, and we couldn’t be more pleased with the results. I thank Parks Director Ian Smith and his team, as well as our friends at CSTNA, Friends of Tilton Park, and West Side Grows Together along with our many other partners for their invaluable contributions to this project. This new playground is just one more example of what can be achieved when communities and government work together to address a pressing need.”
The playground renovations for both Tilton and Cool Spring Parks were made possible with the support of the City of Wilmington, New Castle County, the Delaware State Legislature via the Bond Bill, the Longwood Foundation, Welfare Foundation, Chemours, the Delaware Community Foundation, Red Clay Consolidated School District, Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, New Castle County Conservation District, Senator Elizabeth Lockman, City Councilmember for the 5th District Bregetta Fields, SME Contractors, KOMPAN, Inc., RK&K, Ground Reconsidered, Cornerstone West CDC, West Side Grows Together, and a crowdfunding campaign with a song called “Tilton Park” written by local resident and performer, Sug Daniels (with performance support by Rob Pfeiffer), and many individual donors.
