New Playground to be Built at Sussex Avenue School

The funding for a new playground at Sussex Avenue School has been secured, the Trust for Public Land and a Newark-based Jewish congregation announced recently.

The trust, along with Congregation Ahavas Sholom, have spent the last several years working to get a community playground built at the school, reaching their goal with a donation of $75,000 from the NY/NJ Snowflake Foundation, whose goal is to provide safe places to play for children throughout the New York City metropolitan area.

“’Tikkun olam’ is a Hebrew phrase meaning ‘repair the world.’  This unique partnership between The Trust for Public Land and Congregation Ahavas Sholom, Newark’s oldest operating synagogue, is helping to do exactly that by turning a barren asphalt schoolyard into a green playground,” Anthony Cucchi, New Jersey Director of The Trust for Public Land, said in a statement.  “Children at the school and others in the community will soon be able to play on their new playground.”

The groups separately have worked on improving outdoor recreation facilities for children, but this is the first time they have collaborated on a project, the trust also said.

The budget for the new playground is approximately $1 million and will include vegetable gardens and trees, as well as an outdoor play area that will include chess tables to be used by the students at the K through 8 school.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has donated $1.5 million for the project. Other donors include Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey, The Prudential Foundation, Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, Victoria Foundation, Helen & William Mazer Foundation, Gibson Family Foundation, CTW Foundation, John & Margaret Post Foundation, PSEG Foundation, Wallerstein Foundation for Geriatric Life Improvement, Hyde & Watson Foundation, Landsberger Foundation, and other private donors.