Partnership with the Springfield Parks Foundation make the scholarship program a huge success!!

Often times, families who can benefit the most from Park District programming are also those families who can’t financially afford our services. Many parents today are forced to choose between registering their children for extracurricular programming or meeting other financial obligations of their family. The most recent census (2001) indicated over 2,000 families living in Springfield are below the national poverty guidelines. Recognizing this growing dilemma, the Springfield Park District and the Springfield Parks Foundation partnered together to create a program that would offer financial assistance to underprivileged families. Implemented in 2008, the Scholarship Program significantly impacted the lives of 20 families throughout the Springfield community. On behalf of the Springfield Park District, we would like to officially thank the Springfield Parks Foundation for their tremendous fundraising efforts and continued support of the Scholarship Program.
 

Scholarship Application Form

On October 4, 2008, the Springfield Angel of Hope, NFP dedicated an Angel of Hope Statue in the Washington Park Botanical Garden. The angel statue honors the lives of all children gone too soon and serves as a place of hope and healing for parents, families, and friends dealing with the tragic loss of a child. Nearly 300 area children’s names are commemorated on the Memorial Wall located at the angel statue site. New names will be added annually, and submissions must be received by November 1st each year.

The Springfield Angel of Hope, NFP was organized in August 2007 and raised all the necessary funds to pay for and install the angel statue. Construction began on the Springfield angel statue site in April 2008 at the Washington Park Botanical Garden and was completed in October 2008. The Springfield Angel of Hope, NFP continues to accept donations to cover expenditures such as engraving costs for annual updates to the names listed on the Memorial Wall, expenses associated with the Annual Candlelight Remembrance Ceremony, ongoing landscape costs, and general site maintenance. Each year the public is invited to attend the Candlelight Remembrance Ceremony on December 6th at 7 p.m. at the Angel of Hope Statue site to commemorate the lives of all children gone too soon. Attendees are invited to bring a candle for the ceremony and a white flower to place at the base of the angel statue in memory of their beloved children.

More than 100 communities—including 7 in Illinois—have installed or are in the process of installing an angel statue to respond to the needs of local families who have experienced the loss of a child. Springfield’s angel statue is the only one of its kind located in central Illinois. The children whom the angel statue commemorates should be playing, working, and living in our community—now they will be honored at the angel statue site for generations to come.

For more information about the Angel of Hope Statue, please contact Doug Reynolds, President of the Springfield Angel of Hope, NFP, at f16ratt@mac.com or 553-1329.