Recreation Incentive funds include Addy Grace Friendship swings

The Addy Grace Foundation plans to install Friendship swings at Greenfield Elementary School, thanks to the Botetourt County 2021-2022 Recreation Incentive Fund. The county agreed to fund the swings and six other projects during the Board of Supervisors meeting on December 21, 2021.

The Addy Grace project has a total cost of $17,294, and the county will fund $8,647. Eventually, the Addy Grace Foundation hopes to install these special swings at all of the county’s elementary schools.

The Friendship swings promote social, emotional, and academic support to children during the school day and to members of the community during non-school hours, according to literature provided to the Supervisors.

Other projects funded include:

• installation of an automated external defibrillator (AED) unit at Greenfield Recreation Park soccer fields. Presently, the nearest AED unit to the soccer fields is in the Sports Complex.
• a new scoreboard in the gym at Read Mountain Middle School
• a new batting cage net on the baseball field at Lord Botetourt High School
• replacement of picnic tables at Blue Ridge Park (a Boy Scout project)
• improvements to the Buchanan Town Park
• senior outdoor fitness equipment at the Troutville Town Park.

The projects total $52,860, of which the county will pay $26,123.

The county’s Recreation Incentive Fund has been in place since 1998 and has added more than $2 million in improvements to various county facilities through private and government partnerships on multiple projects.

                                                                        — Anita Firebaugh, Special to the Botetourt Bee