Tower park improvement project needs Internet votes; 25K at stake

by Peter Jakey, Managing Editor

Super Bowl ads ? sometimes they?re better than the football game. However, Pepsi Co. in December 2009 announced that it would not be running their usual high-priced, flashy Super Bowl ads in 2010 and instead would be reinvesting that money to worthy projects all over the country.

Each month Pepsi gives away $1.3 million to various projects that are submitted via an Internet grant process. The breakdown for the grants is: two grants at $250,000; 10 grants at $50,000; 10 grants at $25,000 and 10 grants at $5,000.

A dedicated group of community members, young and old, continue to their efforts to refurbish Tower Park to make it a safe destination for families. The softball refurbishment project was the first major project at the park. It opened in grand style a year ago.

THERE WERE more cosmetic improvements in 2009, but the next major push is to get people of the Tower and Onaway area, as well as supporters in Cheboygan and Presque Isle Counties to vote for the grant to purchase new playground equipment. The Tower Community Improvement Team already cleared a major hurdle by having their grant proposal accepted by Pepsi and posted on the Net. It was submitted by Melinda Hambleton.

At the link, http://www.refresheverything.com/towerparkandplaygroundallforfamilies, photos of broken swings and a slide that has been there for decades, if not a half-century, can be seen on a dark winter?s day. It?s also where people can vote.

?You can vote once a day,

every day, for the month of May. If we are in the top 10 at the end of the month they will write us a check for $25,000,? said Jason Larson, TCIT spokesperson, who has been at the forefront of the project.

?YOU COULD start voting on Saturday,? said Larson. ?We started ranked at 217. We worked our way, I think last night (Wednesday) up to 175th place.? It inched up to 174 late Thursday morning.

?We are making pretty good progress already for a small community,? he added. ?We are trying to advantage of money that is available. If Pepsi wants to give away money, we?ll try and take advantage of it.?

Upcoming events at the park include the ?Hall of Fame? game Friday, June 4, which replaces the ?old timers game.? The first co-ed tournament will be the weekend of June 12 and 13.