(Seguin) — Seguin’s Manuel Castilla Park has received a major upgrade thanks to a new group of business leaders.
The Leadership Seguin Class from the Seguin Area Chamber of Commerce recently unveiled its new large pavilion in the park, located at the corner of Guadalupe and Martindale streets.
Each leadership class is responsible for selecting a community service project. Class member Jake Pflume says the group thought installing the pavilion in the park was a great way to give back to the people of Seguin. The class raised all the money and Pflume says he is pleased to see this project completed.
“We had a really really good group to raise the funds. It was about $75,000 that we had to raise to get this project completed so a really big testament to the Seguin community in just rallying around a great cause,” said Pflume.
Leadership class member Jennifer Coleman says they knew that they had an ambitious project in mind for the park. She says the community stepped up in a big way to make sure that all the work got done.
“I’ve been blown away by the support of the community, the businesses, the individuals rallying together — helping us raise the funds and that was a part that I put a little bit of extra time into, and it was so gratifying to see the support. It just made our job so much easier, and it made this whole thing come together. Without all the support, we could have never done it,” said Coleman.
Seguin Mayor Donna Dodgen thanked the Leadership Class for its vision and commitment to getting the project completed. She says these kinds of things are what make Seguin such a special place.
“That’s what our community is all about. That’s what we are all about. Those of who volunteer. Those of us who give our time. This is what we are about to improve our community and to help us all be better and take us to that next level and I can’t say thank you enough to all the groups who come together to see things that need to be done in Seguin, Texas and just go out and do them,” said Dodgen.
City Manager Steve Parker also thanked the class. He says these kinds of partnerships help them better serve the citizens of Seguin.
“There’s not enough money to do everything so when you have this public, private partnership come together and work together and all the businesses and the community leaders working together to make sure we have a place for all our families to join and they don’t have to go to New Braunfels or San Marcos or other places – they get to stay here. It’s really really amazing. With all the families that are playing football and baseball around here, the parents can come over here and get out of the heat with the little ones. It’s just a great project,” said Parker.
The new large pavilion in Manuel Castilla Park appears to be just the beginning of more improvements coming to the park. Parks and Recreation Director Jack Jones says the city has many new plans in place for the park, and the pavilion was certainly a catalyst for some of these additional improvements.
“We are going to increase the size of this playground. This playground is going away. This playground is 25 years old and we are going to make it about 8,000 square feet so roughly eight times larger and it’s going to be similar to Park West and similar to Starcke Park and Bauer Park but a little bit bigger. It’s going to be a unique design to Seguin and in honor of the class that put together the work on this pavilion. Also, we are going to help with grass out here. We are going to try to seed, add irrigation as well. So, over the course of the next several months, you are going to see more improvements but this pavilion really spearheaded this effort so I want to thank this class for doing this,” said Jones.
The new large pavilion was recently unveiled to the public. During the ceremony, it was revealed that it was already being put to good use. Patlan Elementary School Principal Annalisa Rangel shared a story about how her students were able to use the pavilion before the end of the school year.
“Last week, my first graders were pen (pals)with a school in San Antonio so they met them for lunch and they got to enjoy the pavilion, the park and the playground and they really enjoyed it so thank you for all your hard work,” said Rangel.
The Leadership Class also has plans to add a squirrel sculpture to the park. It will be yet another addition to the city’s growing Squirrel Trail public art program.