It’s been in use bit by bit over the past few years, but on Saturday morning members of the Knoxville Morning Kiwanis Club joined local officials and the public for the formal dedication of their children’s playground.

The ceremony at Young’s Park marked the end of a five-year process which involved replacing the old and worn out equipment which was there; the Kiwanis Club credits member Ernie Smith for being the driving force behind the project, which sought to install accessible and age-appropriate equipment for local children.

Mike Rank is the current Kiwanis Club president; he tells KNIA/KRLS News it’s been a long and intensive effort for the club, and turned out to be more than they bargained for — but no one regrets taking it on.

“We thought, this — can we do this? And we thought, ‘yeah, we’ve gotta do this,’” Rank says. “We had to do it in stages, but at each stage we said, ‘let’s keep going. We’ve gotta make this thing complete.’ And making it handicapped-accessible was a big part of it.”’

It’s become popular enough to bring in kids from around the region; and indeed, part of the reason behind it was to create a more appealing play area within view of visitors at the Knoxville Raceway.

The KNIA/KRLS Lil’ Big Red Radio was on the scene for the event, playing music and relaying announcements to the crowd.