Gary, Indiana, is getting a splash pad, a restored pool, and an art walk, and the check behind it is $1 million. The Boys & Girls Clubs of Northwest Indiana received the largest award in Legacy Foundation’s $4 million “Love Where You Live” initiative, announced at a press conference at IBEW Local 697 and reported by Building Indiana Business. Legacy Foundation is Lake County’s community foundation, and the initiative spreads seven projects across the county’s cities and towns.
The Gary project, the Legacy Park & Art Walk, combines the waterpark and pool restoration, pickleball courts, running track upgrades, outdoor fitness stations, and an inclusive playground, with safety fencing around the Boys & Girls Clubs playground. It is the kind of unglamorous, heavily used infrastructure that philanthropy often walks past on its way to a naming opportunity.
Seven towns, one county
The remaining six awards, funded through a Lilly Endowment Inc. GIFT IX grant to Legacy Foundation, are specific down to the street address:
- Highland receives $886,300 for Kennedy Commons, turning a long-vacant former gas station at 8436 Kennedy Avenue into green space with a community garden, a food access point, a covered shelter, and public art.
- The South Shore Convention and Visitors Authority receives $645,200 for the Optimist Lake Project in Hammond, near Interstate 94 and Kennedy Avenue: boardwalks, an over-water walking feature, a paved loop trail, a fishing pier, and a canoe and kayak launch.
- Hobart’s parks department receives $500,000 for Festival Park on Lake George, with a performance stage, splash pad, playground, and ADA-accessible connections to the lakefront.
- Griffith receives $500,000 to convert its park into a year-round multi-sport site, including a portable 40-by-80-foot ice rink.
- Lowell receives $300,000 to revive its historic town square as a gathering space.
- New Chicago, the smallest town on the list, receives $168,500 to rebuild its park basketball court with a reinforced concrete overlay, polymer surface, and glass backboards.
The seven awards sum to exactly $4 million.
“Investing in accessible public spaces strengthens the social and economic fabric of our communities,” said Kelly Anoe, president and CEO of Legacy Foundation.
Public space is preservation at street level. A town square in Lowell, a lakefront in Hobart, a court in New Chicago: these are the rooms where a county’s life actually happens, and they decay quietly when no one writes the check. This time, someone did, seven times over.
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