South Brunswick Park Gets Makeover

On the hottest day of the year so far, volunteers from L'Oreal USA and the township Recreation and Parks Department sweat their way through an extreme makeover on a township park.

College Park, located at the end of Quentin Road in Kendall Park, received a major facelift to help transform the small neighborhood park into more of a family destination. Volunteers helped to remove weeds, brush and litter, install a new swing set, and improve the baseball field.

"This is an amazing thing for our residents that L'Oreal does every year," said Jennifer Petri of the township Recreation and Parks Department. "Even though their employees don't live in South Brunswick, they're willing to come out and give back to the community. This project is going to help draw more families and bring more kids to this park. They also turned the ball field into a great neighborhood field."

College Park holds a special significance in South Brunswick as the home of the  The walking path was dedicated to the memory of Brady Wells in May, 2011 after his death in 2010 at the age of 23 months from pediatric leukemia. Brady’s parents Mike and Sherrie Wells then started the  which has since raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for children fighting cancer.

For the Wells family, the playground in College Park was a as he loved going down the slide and going on walks through the park. With the Wells family expecting newborn twins any day now, an infant swing set was installed at College Park by L'Oreal.

"We thought that was a really appropriate gesture after everything they have been through," said Parks and Recreation Director Tom Morris. "Sherrie was out here earlier at the cleanup thanking everyone."

This was the fourth straight year L'Oreal employees have volunteered their time in South Brunswick to help beautify a township park. Previous projects included planting trees, flowers, cleaning, weeding, sweeping, and installing playground equipment. The program has added picnic tables, grills, benches and a ball field to township parks, Petri said. 

The give back to the community program L'Oreal runs nationwide brought over 3,000 company employees out for a day of volunteer work. The task was made tougher locally with scorching temperatures that were close to triple digits.

"We love doing this on the hottest day of the year," joked L'Oreal Inventory Manager Cory Collins. "But it's been great, everybody was out here ready to work. We thought we'd have some cancellations the night before due to the heat but everyone showed up. It's nice for the company to give us the opportunity to give back because not all of us are from the area."

Collins and his fellow volunteers also cleaned and repaired playground equipment, planted some new shade trees and helped make the park more accessible.

"This will really make the park more family friendly," he said. "We'll stay out here until the job is done. It's hot, but everybody hasn't stopped working yet."

For township officials, getting a donation of time and equipment from a local company is a huge boost during a difficult economic era for the township.

"This what a community and a business working together can accomplish," said Mayor Frank Gambatese. "The spirit these employees bring to South Brunswick is a great thing. This equipment would've cost the township thousands of dollars, so we're obviously thrilled with what L'Oreal does for South Brunswick every year."