Grace Reform is ‘blessed’ with new playground

When Ian Conlon was preparing to do his Eagle Scout project, he thought long and hard about whom he’d like it to benefit.

After toying with some ideas, the 17-year-old North Merrick resident settled on the Grace Reform Baptist Church, where he’d attended preschool many years ago.

Conlon has been a member of the Merrick-based Troop 351 since he was 12, but he wasn’t always a Boy Scout. He joined a bit later than most boys, he said, because his older brother, Erik, was involved, and he saw the impact the troop’s work had on the community. Erik is an Eagle Scout himself, having earned the rank in 2020.

“I did go to preschool there,” Conlon told the Herald last week, after a short ceremony at Grace Reform, “but afterwards, I didn’t really come here much. I would come sometimes, just to see the teachers. But I wanted to come back and help them out.”

The church’s preschool is no longer open, Conlon said, and instead the school is now a K-through-12 facility. He contacted the church nearly two years ago, and through communications with one of its deacons, Dan Totter, he learned that the school really needed a new playground, because the old one had fallen into disrepair.

“The slide was all boarded up. There were pieces of stone from the spring horses coming out of the ground,” Conlon recalled. “It was not very safe, and it was definitely great to fix it up and make it look better.”

A project of such size comes with costs, and Conlon raised funds through a car wash, and also received a lot of money from donations and supporters of the church. And despite the time it took to get the project in motion, the work was completed relatively fast. The ground was broken to completely redo the outdoor space in September, and it officially reopened on Oct. 6.

“What we started initially was just taking some things out of the playground, and putting in new benches and doing new fences, but then it completely evolved into what it is now,” Conlon said. “It definitely made the scope of the work a lot larger.”

His project also inspired the church to install a new synthetic-turf field next to the playground. “I was not part of the field,” he said, “but it was completely not there before the project started. I think once the Eagle project idea was brought to the church, parents were interested in adding more — I’m really glad that I inspired that.”

At last week’s ceremony Totter said it was no exaggeration how much work needed to be done on the playground. “Fencing was falling apart, bushes were overgrown and blocking the line of sight — there were a lot of things to address, and Ian tackled all of them,” Totter said.

From coming up with an idea to organizing money and volunteers, and balancing his own schedule with the church’s, Totter said it was a tremendous amount of work. “They came here and they worked on it,” he added. “And it ended up being beyond what we initially imagined.”

One of the church’s pastors, the Rev. Robert Karson, described the project as a blessing. “To see all the help that you and all your friends and family contributed to it, it was a pleasure,” he said at the ceremony “and we’re so blessed to have what you’ve done here.”

Conlon’s mother, Annika Conlon, said the church was there for her son throughout the project. “It was even more gratifying to be with (everyone) that gave so much,” she said of those at the church who helped out. “(They) were always there when we needed (them). We’re so thankful and grateful.”

Even though the playground was completely redone, it will retain one element — a sign that says “Kaitlyn’s Castle.” Kaitlyn was a little girl who attended the school and died many years ago, Conlon said, “so the church named the playground in her memory.” The sign was temporarily removed to be repainted, but will be put back very soon.

“Dan (Totter) and everyone else at the church were nothing but extremely helpful and truly dependable — dropping whatever they could to come help us whenever we needed anything,” Conlon said at the end of the ceremony. “I couldn’t thank you guys enough.”

Conlon is not officially an Eagle Scout yet, because his project needs to undergo a review process. The review time for projects can vary, and he’ll likely get official word sometime next year.

To see Conlon’s renovations in person, stop by the church at 36 Smith Street in Merrick.