Ruby Read, 5, and her brother McKay, 7, slide down a sliding board together at the Betty Mascelli Park in Forty Fort. The Read children are from Dallas, but their babysitter brought them to the Betty Mascelli Park earlier this week because, she said, ‘it’s so nice; I take them to a different park each day.’
Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader
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Forty Fort Councilwoman Kristy Dadurka and playground commitee volunteer Jerry Lamark show pictures of playground equipment they would like to see added to the Betty Mascelli Park in Forty Fort.
Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader
Ask 8-year-old Jack Dadurka what he likes best about the Betty Mascelli Park in Forty Fort, and he pauses. Then a slow smile crosses his face as he answers: “Everything.”
Ask 7-year-old McKay Read the same question, and you get the same answer: “Everything.”
“Everything” includes playground equipment for climbing and sliding, grassy expanses for running around, shady trees and a pavilion for playing games out of the sun, and — for borough residents only, this year, because of the coronavirus — a swimming pool.
“It’s our little oasis,” said Kristy Dadurka, a Forty Fort Councilwoman who frequently brings her sons Jack and Luke to the park. “If we didn’t have the COVID-19 situation this year we’d be having movies out here, and ‘glow night’ with glow sticks.”
“I wish there were more parks like this,” said Meredith Stevens, a child care provider who brought McKay and his sister, Ruby, from their home in Dallas to play in the Forty Fort park.
Dadurka and volunteer Jerry Lamark are eager to make the park even more inviting, and inclusive. Specifically, they’re hoping to add playground equipment including a swing that could be accessed by children in wheelchairs.
“It’s really exciting,” Dadurka said, smiling at the idea of children with challenges being able to enjoy the feeling of freedom you can get on a swing.
The park could use some other improvements as well, Dadurka and Lamark said, including repaved basketball courts and security cameras.
She and Lamark urge anyone who cares about the Betty Mascelli Park to purchase a sidewalk brick, for $100, which entitles them to memorialize a name or short message by having it inscribed on the brick.
“It’s leaving a legacy,” Dadurka said. “I came here as a kid; now I bring my kids.”
“You brought your kids here,” she said to Lamark. “Now you bring your granddaughter.”
If anyone is interested in buying a brick, they can contact Jerry Lamark at 26 Pomona St., Forty Fort, PA 18704 or borough manager Bonnie Arnone at 570-287-8586.
or jeratFFpark