- March 10, 2025
The Flagler/Palm Coast Kiwanis Club on Wednesday donated $15,000 to the city of Bunnell to build a playground at the Carver Community Center.
“This is a wonderful award for the city of Bunnell and for the project at the Carver Gym,” Bunnell Mayor Catherine Robinson told the group at the meeting. “You have just become our family. We extend to family anyone who supports us and contributes and believes in our projects, and this is one that is very near and dear to our hearts because we fought so hard to keep Carver Gym open. ... It takes a whole community to turn something that’s in rags and make it back to riches.”
The $15,000 will get the playground project started, but the ultimate vision for Bunnell is to evolve the playground into a sports complex that will open during the city’s centennial year.
“If we have fields and other districts coming in to play ball in our territory, they’ll buy gas there, and they’ll buy food there, and we’ll have a community of kids playing with other kids,” Robinson said.
The project is a dream of Kiwanian Frank Consentino that finally got off the ground when he met with the city officials and the County Commission last spring.
The projected cost of the playground is $25,400, and Bunnell committed to funding $5,400 provided the Kiwanis Club could raise the additional funding. That funding came from a $10,000 grant from the club’s 2012-13 budget and a $5,000 grant from the District Kiwanis Club. The club hopes to receive the remaining $5,000 from a district grant in the next budget year.
“What you’re doing for a project to try to prevent and treat obesity for our children is a wonderful thing,” said Robinson, who is also is a registered dietitian. “The adults of tomorrow, if we don’t deal with the obesity of the children of today, there are going to be huge health issues that far surpass what we’re dealing with today.”
