Collins Aerospace donates its Employee Association Park to the Belvidere Park District
June 26, 202011:15 pmCassandra BretlCORONAVIRUS,NEWS,TOP NEWS STORIES,TOP STORIES
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BELVIDERE (WREX) — Collins Aerospace employees have used a park in Belvidere for cook outs and celebrations for more than 50 years. Now that park is under new ownership but Collins Aerospace hopes its legacy and memories will be passed on.
Employees at Collins Aerospace have fond memories of a park in Belvidere.
"I remember the first time I went to that park. I was an intern and I was just floored at not only how big the park was but how many employees were apart of the Sundstrand Corporation at that time," said Electric Systems Vice President Stan Kottke.
The park was right next door to Hamilton Sundstrand's location. In the 1990s what is now Collins Aerospace moved all of its facilities to Rockford.
"As families have gotten busier and busier, the park really wasn't being used as it originally was. It hit us that this beautiful park and it's being used but it's also
being locked up and so the park district has a better opportunity to get use out of the park," said Kottke.
The company is donating the keys to the Belvidere Park District. The Executive Director Mark Pentecost says the fully developed 16-acre park is one of the largest land donations the park district has seen to date.
"The additional space is huge. It will definitely give us bigger capacities to offer certain services that we just weren't able to," said Pentecost.
"It has a baseball field and a volleyball court and a couple of pavilions and so the park district has talked about being able to use the space for summer camps and programs for kids," said Kottke.
With COVID-19 restrictions, the gift offers possibilities for now and for later.
"It gave us an area where we can provide some safe space if we needed to. Although, we can open the doors and make it an open outdoor space for the camps," said Pentecost.
"We can actually organize bigger events like carnivals and we can do things that might not be available anywhere else," said Kottke.
The Belvidere Park District has named the park Sundstrand Park to commemorate the company and its dedication to the community.
A ceremony for the donation will be held on Tuesday.
Cassandra Bretl
Above is from: https://wrex.com/2020/06/26/collins-aerospace-donates-its-employee-association-park-to-the-belvidere-park-district/
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