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Date: 5/10/2021
HOLYOKE – A Holyoke resident is partnering with the Holyoke Parks and Recreation Department to give community members the opportunity to help create a sidewalk obstacle course.
Lhea Destromp said the idea to host the sidewalk chalk competition came from chalk obstacle courses her and her daughter had created last summer. “This is something we did, my daughter and I. She’s 8, we did it last year. It started with one obstacle course in the driveway,” she said. “A neighbor said how good it was, so did it for their driveway.”
From there, she said it grew with more and more neighbors requesting that they draw courses on their driveways. Destromp said she is involved with a “small health challenged group of community members working to support each other in making healthy choices.” This group, she explained, originally set out simply to raise funds to be able to paint an obstacle course on a sidewalk at Dufrain Park.
However, she said in an unexpectedly pleasant surprise the Parks and Recreation Department offered to pay for the supplies needed to create the course. “Originally we had set out to raise money to do it, then the parks said they would pay for it. We’re lucky enough to have that funding in place and the people,” she said.
At this time, she explained that she’s seeking community members to submit their own design for the sidewalk obstacle course. “We’re looking for designs that bring that message of healthy mind, healthy body, health self. Picture the best you, make the best choices,” she said. Destromp gave a couple examples of designs that had already been submitted including her own daughters which she said was “a food rainbow” and involved hopping to and from different vegetables such as “jumping from the carrot to the lettuce.” Another submission, she explained, was from a little girl within the community who designed an obstacle course that showed how to do burpees, an exercise involving squat thrusts. “This little girl came up with such a creative course, it walks people through where your hands and feet go for doing burpees,” she said. Destromp added the girl had included a video submission including her showing how the course would work by doing a burpee of her own.
She said the courses would be painted on a path at Pulaski Park at a point where the walking path splits off and comes back together. She said she was thinking about doing a “choose your own adventure, or an intermediate or hard path,” depending on the submissions that were received.
Destromp said depending on how many submissions she receives she may end up taking them and adding an element of each design to the obstacle course. “It’s if we do get enough submissions where people vote. If not, we’re going to take components of every design and create a more cohesive patchwork or collage. Each design component will have an artist signature,” she said.
She added the rain has been an obstacle, and if they were to host a sidewalk competition again in the future she would keep this in consideration. Destromp said the sidewalk painting would take place prior to the Fourth of July. “We don’t want to be out in the scorching sun, maybe the last week of June depending on when we get the materials. That would be dependent on the Parks Department,” she said.
The painting, she said, would be done by the group and would take safety into account. “It will be the members of this health group working together in collaboration. We’re going to section off a design and we’ll be painting in pods, so painting in teams and practice social distancing,” she said. “Maybe I’ll be working on a section that’s 6 feet away. We already have facemasks and everything.” She emphasized that this was “an opportunity for community members to share their voice.”
“Not just to share their one unique individual voice, but to blend it. We are on this path together, not just the path in the park but as a community we are on a path forward,” she said.
Residents are invited to create their sidewalk obstacle courses at the park until the evening of May 19. Video and photo submissions can be entered on the Facebook event page, which can be found on the SOC Hop Holyoke Challenge Facebook page.