Hartley Heroes: Hartley students visit with mayor about improving local park

May 19, 2025

Hartley Elementary School students Fatima, Abrar and Saharsh made a powerful difference for their neighborhood this spring by writing a persuasive message with purple markers.
 
The second graders enjoyed a visit with Lincoln Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird and other city officials during a trip to Hartley Park. They wrote to the mayor’s office this past December requesting improvements to the small neighborhood park, which is located in between two residential lots on R Street. Gaylor Baird was inspired by their letter and agreed to meet the three Hornets to talk about their ideas.

“When you get a letter from little kids, you’re going to pay attention and notice, especially when it’s in purple marker,” Gaylor Baird said. 
 
Saharsh, Fatima and Abrar penned their mayoral message for an assignment in their English Learner (EL) class about persuasive writing. Hartley EL teacher Hope MacFarlane guided them through the process and helped them place sentences on an oversized piece of lined paper.
 
“We are writing to ask you to please make our Hartley park better,” the letter said. “We think it needs swings, slides, trash cans, a place to play soccer, monkey bars and a picnic table. Right now there is not much to do there so people don’t go there. If the park is better it would help our neighborhood.”
 
Saharsh, Abrar and Fatima felt it was a good idea to send the letter to Gaylor Baird. They were buzzing with excitement as they played on a merry-go-round after speaking with her. They said they had offered her many suggestions as they sat together on a picnic table near the park’s historic gazebo.
 
“We can put slides or swings because swings are fun,” Abrar said.
 
“I like to see butterflies and plants and people having fun,” Saharsh said.
 
Fatima said she liked speaking with the mayor and planting a tree with her on the park’s southern edge. What did she learn from her letter-writing experience?
 
“Being smart and caring about others,” Fatima said with a smile.
 
Gaylor Baird was happy when the Hartley message was placed on her desk. She wanted to let the Hornets know that their words were a key part of all conversations in Lincoln.
 
“We’re just so thrilled that they felt like they could offer their voices, and we’re so glad to be hearing them in person today to follow up,” Gaylor Baird said. “It’s really nice when kids care, and I hope that it’s just the first of many ways that they get engaged with us at the city.”
 
Lincoln Parks and Recreation Director Maggie Stuckey-Ross said the letter’s timing worked well in the city’s overall playground planning process. The department operates on a 25-year lifespan for each city playground. When a playground is nearing the end of that time period, employees begin eyeing what types of changes could help improve it.
 
Stuckey-Ross said it has been 23 years since Hartley Park was last refurbished. It typically takes about 18 months to design and implement any renovations, which meant Hartley was on the department’s radar for the near future. She said the park’s playground will likely see improvements sometime in 2027.
 
“Our team was already sort of dreaming about what could happen here at Hartley,” Stuckey-Ross said. “You’ll notice a lot of the equipment that we have here we don’t have anywhere else, because we are phasing out that older equipment in a lot of places, so this letter was perfectly timed. It’s why we thought it would be a great opportunity to bring the mayor together with the kids and talk more about the ideas.”
 
Kaylyn Neverve, a city park planner, led Gaylor Baird, MacFarlane and the three students on a short tour of Hartley’s playing area. The playground’s sandy surface contains two baby-sized swings, a merry-go-round, a bouncy rider and a digging toy. The Hornets then sat down at a table with the three adults and used crayons, pens and markers to illustrate their improvements on an aerial map.
 
“It’s easy to tell at a glance that this playground equipment has been here a while, so immediately I could see why the kids wrote to us asking for new playground equipment that they like,” Gaylor Baird said. “I’m hearing a lot about slides, I’m hearing a lot about a soccer field and places to play that suit their interests. This was designed for tots, but we want to serve kids of more ages here.”
 
MacFarlane said Saharsh, Fatima and Abrar gained many valuable lessons from the experience. They learned that their actions could lead to true changes both for themselves and others. They also picked up confidence in their reading and writing abilities and discovered that many adults were willing to listen to and act on their concerns.
 
“They have a voice and they get to share that,” MacFarlane said.
 
Stuckey-Ross said it was fun to watch the eyes of Saharsh, Fatima and Abrar light up as they realized they were making a difference. She said the entire experience showed her that purple markers can sometimes be the most powerful writing tools available.
 
“I would say for this neighborhood, this park is a really special place, and to have that reiterated by a letter from area residents, from these kids, it just was very meaningful,” Stuckey-Ross said.

Learn more about our English Learner Program on the LPS website at https://home.lps.org/federal/ell-english-language-learner-program/.
 
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