Noon Optimists help add playground near park's soccer fields

The last of William "B.W." Harrison's legacy will help add playground equipment to Shawnee Park Sports Complex.

His $40,000 donation to the parks' soccer fields included a shelter, but a little more than $13,600 remained when the work was done. Those funds, along with $5,000 from Cape Area Youth Soccer Association and $25,000 from the Cape Gir-ardeau Noon Optimist Club will be used to buy an elaborate playground complex, according to Lonnie Lusk, a board member of the service club.

Lusk said young soccer players needed a place to play while waiting for soccer games to start.

Shawnee Park has a playground area, but it's confined to the baseball fields, about a quarter-mile from the soccer area.

"That's too far apart," said Brad Davis, Cape Girardeau's parks division manager. "That's a long way for little children to walk."

Noon Optimist club members raised the $25,000 by hosting chili day and working at Bingo World in Cape Girardeau, Lusk said.

The playground equipment will fill a 40-by-58-foot area in the midst of the park's 12 soccer fields, which are arranged in three clusters.

Davis estimated the new equipment will last up to 30 years.

Harrison, who died in 2004, was a well-known Cape Girar-deau philanthropist.

On Wednesday, after the Noon Optimists' lunch meeting at Port Cape Girardeau, Lusk handed Davis a $25,000 check. Davis said the equipment will be purchased from a Kansas City, Mo., supplier, Fry & Associates.

The installation date has not been finalized, Davis said.

pmcnichol@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 127