Mankato Kiwanis Pledge $50,000 to MY Place Playground

The Mankato Kiwanis Club has pledged a total of $50,000 toward the playground planned for the new MY Place building at 1315 Stadium Road. Half was pledged by the club itself; the other half will come from members and is currently more than 70 percent of the way to its goal.

MY Place opened its doors in October 2018 as a Boys and Girls Club to fill a growing need in the community. In the fall of 2019 it became MY Place. It serves youth K-8 when they are not in school. There is no cost to participate, meaning ALL kids have access to an out of school opportunity. The new location expects to serve twice as many kids as the current site on South Fourth Street. Its capital campaign continues. More information is available at myplacemankato.org

For the last couple of summers, Mankato Kiwanis has provided a Reading Oasis to kids who attend MY Place, in keeping with its international mission to serve the children of the world. The club feels providing a safe playground at the new location is in keeping with that mission.

“Mankato Kiwanis is proud to continue its support of MY Place as it begins this exciting new phase of its service to Mankato’s children,” said Mankato Kiwanis President Liz Paul. “For us, it’s a dynamic extension of and addition to what we continue to provide through Kiwanis Camp Patterson, Kiwanis Holiday Lights and Kiwanis Thunder of Drums.”

Said MY Place Executive Director Erin Simmons: “We are grateful for the generosity of the Kiwanis, who like us are on a mission to improve the lives of youth in our community. At our current location we do not have a playground, which means that the gift from Kiwanis is so impactful.”