The Make a Difference Day event Saturday was very different for a group of Covington residents, city officials and staff.
A group gathered at about 12:30 to celebrate the reopening of Jenkins Creek Park.
The city was forced to close the 23-acre park in 2006 because funds were not available to fight the vandalism and maintain safe conditions at the park.
During the Saturday reopening ceremony Parks and Recreation Director Scott Thomas described the park as a “potential crown jewel of the area.”
Thomas noted the park is about 20 years old and ownership of the park was transferred to the city from King County in 2002.
Mayor Margaret Harto noted the park had been a gathering place for American Indians and called it the “Central Park of Covington.”
Harto recognized a litany of volunteers from the area who provided the dedication and labor to get the park opened.
Volunteers and organizations included George and Susan Pearson, Welton Dockins, Covington Christian Fellowhip, Covington Rotary and members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Harto noted the effort to get the park open began in earnest during an Earth Day event in April when more than 100 volunteers showed up to work on the park. The mayor said 25 cubic yards of weeds and 16 tons of debris were removed. Harto also recognized rotary members who began working on the park four years earlier.
A special spark plug award was presented to Dockins and the Pearsons.
Dockins headed a group from the Covington Christian Fellowship that met on Thursdays to work on the park.
George and Susan Pearson, who live in Timberlane and have been residents of Covington since 1986, participated in the Earth Day activity, then continued working on the park five days a week through the reopening. The couple worked more than 400 hours clearing and cleaning the park.
“When the kids were little they came and built forts and sat under the maple trees,” George Pearson said. “This all used to be a meadow.”
The Pearsons estimated they took out 130 cubic yards of Scotch broom and blackberries by wheelbarrows. Covington Christian Fellowship members hauled the weeds away.
“I am stunned,” Will Cummings said of the Pearsons’ work. “This park was abandoned and looked like condemned property. It’s still wild, but it is cared for.”
George Pearson joined the U.S. Army in 1967 and went to Vietnam. Three years after leaving the Army he joined the Navy, serving as a corpsman. He retired after 23 years. Pearson brought that sense of duty and an enduring commitment to his work in the park.
“I was down here everyday because I care,” George Pearson said. “We just started cutting blackberries. We wanted to volunteer and help clean this place up and take this park back.”
