Coventry P.E.A.C.E. park is an essential community asset

Coventry P.E.A.C.E. Park and Playground [photo by Brady Dindia]

The Coventry P.E.A.C.E. playground was created 23 years ago by a group of passionate and engaged citizens, in collaboration with the school board and city of Cleveland Heights.

Since that time, Coventy P.E.A.C.E., a nonprofit organization, has endured. Its volunteer members are stewards of the park, caring for the grounds, gardens and play equipment through biannual park work days.

Coventry park is really a campus, as it encompasses the multi-use Coventry School building, the park itself, the ball field, the P.E.A.C.E. arch, the Coventry Village Library and the south entrance to Coventry Village.

The park serves at times as a soccer and Frisbee field, a summer movie theater, an amphitheater for Shakespeare plays, a great sledding hill for little kids, a gathering place for a drum circle, a concert venue, a place for outdoor yoga classes, a reading garden for library patrons, a place to meet neighbors, a place to make friends and a place where one can just “be.” Per square foot it is the most-used ground in Cleveland Heights.

Coventry park is a stunning green space. Green space is vital to our well-being as individuals and as a community. Once we lose it, we don’t get green space back, ever.

Coventry park is a vital asset to Cleveland Heights. It is one of those things that makes Cleveland Heights—“Cleveland Heights.” Loss of the park would harm the soul of our community.

The members of Coventry P.E.A.C.E. are committed to the preservation of the park and green space. We look forward to working with the school board, the city and other citizens to find a way to make the park and green space an enduring asset of our community.

The future of this great space will depend on the involvement of engaged community members. I hope that you will be one of them.