Speaker 1: Okay, Dan, let me get this straight. We sent our
Speaker 1: information via the Harvest Home for me app.
Speaker 2: You reviewed it here and now we're pre qualified officially.
Speaker 1: That's helpful, very helpful. Holmelan's made easy. Harvest Bank ready
Speaker 1: to help.
Speaker 3: Good morning, good morning, good morning, and welcome, welcome, welcome.
Speaker 3: It's time now for our community connection right here on
Speaker 3: Caine One, the one you trust. Beautiful day today, My
Speaker 3: goodness sakes, We've got our friends with Kittie Park in here.
Speaker 3: We've got Ken Johnson, chairman of the board. Also Ashley Caine,
Speaker 3: who's the campaign chairman. And who's this young man right here? Hey,
Speaker 3: there you go, he's the kid in Kittie Park today, right.
Speaker 3: First of all, Ken, nice turnout for the campaign kickoff
Speaker 3: yesterday at the Richard Kaine YMCA. Kind of give us
Speaker 3: a little bit of the snaps as we kind of
Speaker 3: give an overview of what's going on and everything, didn't
Speaker 3: we sure?
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, two years ago we decided that Kitty
Speaker 4: Park needed a complete refurbishment. So for the last two
Speaker 4: years we've kind of been working behind the scenes on
Speaker 4: a campaign, a capital campaign to raise some money to
Speaker 4: refurbish the Kittie Park. Well, yesterday we actually kicked off
Speaker 4: the public phase of that campaign, so hopefully we've We've
Speaker 4: got a two point seven.
Speaker 1: Million dollar campaign going on.
Speaker 4: We've most raised two point two million of that so far,
Speaker 4: so we're still looking for another five hundred thousand dollars
Speaker 4: to finish off our campaign.
Speaker 3: Now, actually, this is the first time you've been a
Speaker 3: campaign chairwoman. Tell us a little bit about how you
Speaker 3: got involved and how this is going so far for you.
Speaker 2: Yes, this is definitely a new thing for me, but
Speaker 2: I've had such a great time with Ken and Kent.
Speaker 2: Strumman's been our consultant to lead us through this charge
Speaker 2: and we've had a great campaign team. My kids have
Speaker 2: been involved, so that's it's been so fine. We couldn't
Speaker 2: say no, just based on the heartwarming memories that we
Speaker 2: have from my kids growing up at Kitty Park and
Speaker 2: my husband growing up at Kitty Park. He has tons
Speaker 2: of stories about cousins coming in from town from Philadelphia
Speaker 2: and they would go to Kitty Park and they thought
Speaker 2: that was just such a great family time. And we
Speaker 2: have that to offer here in Bartlesville now part.
Speaker 3: Of this seventy what ninety year history.
Speaker 4: Yeah, this year will be our seventy ninth season to
Speaker 4: be open there at Kitty Park.
Speaker 3: Now, you spent several summers working there as a young man, didn't.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I started.
Speaker 4: I was born and raised here in Bartlesville, and I
Speaker 4: started working at Kitty Park when I was thirteen and
Speaker 4: ended up being the manager down there in high school,
Speaker 4: which was kind of interesting, and worked there till I
Speaker 4: was twenty and then I got married and went and
Speaker 4: started my professional life from there.
Speaker 3: But Kitty Park just held some any memories for you
Speaker 3: being a you know, a Varsal homegrown kid and working
Speaker 3: there and everything else, like this kind of hung with you.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, you know.
Speaker 4: When I was asked to get back involved about two
Speaker 4: and a half three years ago, there's no way I
Speaker 4: could have said no. It's such a fun experience. And
Speaker 4: to see the smile on the kids' faces every day
Speaker 4: when they come down there and enjoy the park is
Speaker 4: just heartwarming.
Speaker 3: It's got to be ashlynd. You guys had the little
Speaker 3: ones flipping the numbers yesterday. That was a little bit
Speaker 3: of something that was kind of a special treaty yesterday.
Speaker 2: I think that added definitely a fun dynamic. And the kids,
Speaker 2: they you know, they love feeling involved, And I think
Speaker 2: that was kind of the point of having co chairmen
Speaker 2: of the Kiddie Park Board be kids. Just that's the
Speaker 2: purpose of the park to bring joy to kids and families,
Speaker 2: and so it was a good way to get them
Speaker 2: involved and make them feel like they were really making
Speaker 2: a difference for the now.
Speaker 3: Actually, how can people make a contribution.
Speaker 2: We've got a QR code that we can pass out.
Speaker 2: We've got some fundraiser brochures that are really really cool.
Speaker 2: If you get a chance to look at one of those,
Speaker 2: it's kind of like a storybook that gives the whole
Speaker 2: history of the Kitty Park from when we started to
Speaker 2: where we are now. You can go on the Kitty
Speaker 2: Park's Facebook page or social media page and there'll be
Speaker 2: a link on there, or you can get a hold
Speaker 2: of one of the members of the campaign team or
Speaker 2: the Kitty Park Board and we'd love to assist you
Speaker 2: in that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, when the fund traised, what are they going to
Speaker 3: go toward? As far as Kitty Park, I know there's
Speaker 3: like five or six things we enubratd yesterday.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Well, you know, it's a complete refurbishment of the
Speaker 4: park all the way from the park beautification, which means
Speaker 4: that the new asphalt, the new fences around everything to safety.
Speaker 4: We have gone through every ride or going through every
Speaker 4: ride making sure that you know, the.
Speaker 1: All the rides are safe.
Speaker 4: They are ready to go, and our goal is to
Speaker 4: have these rides available in the park ready for the
Speaker 4: next seventy five years so.
Speaker 1: That we continue to build memories.
Speaker 4: Right now, we have great grandparents that are bringing their
Speaker 4: kids down there that went to the park when they
Speaker 4: were children, so you know, we want to just keep
Speaker 4: building on that.
Speaker 3: Now. We were talking beforehand, how intricate is it on
Speaker 3: the train itself. You got it down to the last
Speaker 3: little nut and bolt, don't you.
Speaker 4: Well, yeah, we completely rebuilt the train this summer or
Speaker 4: this over the winter.
Speaker 1: We took it down completely.
Speaker 4: Every nut, every bolt has been replaced on it, all
Speaker 4: the springs, all the wheels, everything's been replaced.
Speaker 1: It's been powder coated.
Speaker 4: All the brass has been polished on it. So when
Speaker 4: we roll it out in May, it'll look like a
Speaker 4: brand new train.
Speaker 3: A little while ago, the city give you guys a
Speaker 3: little extra space to have expanded.
Speaker 4: They well, I got a little ambitious a couple of
Speaker 4: years ago and went to the City and asked them
Speaker 4: for the area just north of the existing park, and
Speaker 4: they were gracious enough to lease us out space as.
Speaker 1: Well, and so we've expanded.
Speaker 4: We've added nine new rides at the kiddie Park over
Speaker 4: the last two years. Every ride that we've added is
Speaker 4: what we call a family friendly ride, which means that
Speaker 4: now bigger kids adults can ride the rides as well.
Speaker 4: So we've added a new roller coaster, We've added what
Speaker 4: they call Disney dragons, we have a slide coming in
Speaker 4: this summer. We've you know, we're rebuilding our bumper cars
Speaker 4: right now. So the bumper car building hopefully will start
Speaker 4: being erected this week. Hopefully it won't be quite finished
Speaker 4: by May third when we opened, but by the time
Speaker 4: schools out we hope to have it up and run
Speaker 4: in as well.
Speaker 3: Oh my goodness sake, this is just gonna be so
Speaker 3: much fun.
Speaker 2: My favorite part is the Ferris Will. We've got a
Speaker 2: Ferris Will that was featured in a Hallmark movie that
Speaker 2: Ken was able to get a hold of, and so
Speaker 2: that that's my favorite new thing that we're going to add.
Speaker 3: Wow, that's incredible, you know, so both of you think
Speaker 3: you've seen it all at Kitty Park. You ain't seen
Speaker 3: nothing yet, and this summer it's going to be the one.
Speaker 3: You just got to come in and see it all.
Speaker 3: I said to Ken before we got on the air, says,
Speaker 3: you know, I guess this is going to be it
Speaker 3: for the next seventy nine years. And I started thinking about, No,
Speaker 3: it ain't going to be next year. You just wait,
Speaker 3: you wait.
Speaker 1: You know. Fortunately, the.
Speaker 4: People of Bartlesville have been so gracious and donated money.
Speaker 4: You know, we are a nonprofit organization. We don't get
Speaker 4: any subsidies from the city. It's not owned by anybody,
Speaker 4: so we have a group of volunteers that actually run
Speaker 4: the park. So we survive on ticket sales and donations
Speaker 4: and that's how we survive. So as long as people
Speaker 4: continue to help us out, we will continue to grow
Speaker 4: the park and make it a very nice place to be,
Speaker 4: very inexpensive for kids to come down and enjoy.
Speaker 3: You just got about a minute or so left. I
Speaker 3: want to make sure everybody gets kind of like your
Speaker 3: final say and go.
Speaker 2: Ahead, Ashley, Well, I just offer that we'd love to
Speaker 2: have you volunteer. As Ken said, that's one way you
Speaker 2: can get involved. You can donate to our campaign. You
Speaker 2: can share the word and just spread the message, tell
Speaker 2: people what's going on, exciting things that are happening at
Speaker 2: Kitty Park. And this doesn't just stay local, because we've
Speaker 2: got people statewide, across the state, across I think eleven
Speaker 2: other states that visited last year that we hope to
Speaker 2: get back. So just spread the word and be excited
Speaker 2: to be a portion and to be part of this
Speaker 2: effort for the Kiddie Park.
Speaker 4: Ken last words, wel like Ashley said, we had over
Speaker 4: thirty four thousand people come through the park last year
Speaker 4: and we were closed fourteen days due to heat or
Speaker 4: rain last year, So that's a lot of people that
Speaker 4: come through from eleven different states, which if you think
Speaker 4: about it, that's twenty percent of the United States people
Speaker 4: have at least visited there in last year. So come
Speaker 4: out see us and help us make twenty twenty five
Speaker 4: even better than twenty twenty four.
Speaker 3: All Right, folks, the challenges on, let's do it. Thank
Speaker 3: you very much for being with us here on our
Speaker 3: community Connection program.