Virden Parks Initiative

10/09/2026

Thanks to those who already dropped off CAKEWALK items for tomorrow! You can still bring any items you have to the park before noon tomorrow.... Saturday! For those of you who are not dropping off, bring your quarters and join us when we start the game at noon!

09/30/2026

09/21/2026

We’re seeking donations for our Cakewalk on Saturday, October 10th at noon. Comment below if you can help, and we’ll share the details with you!

Send a message to learn more

09/04/2026

We are very grateful to all those who not only collected bottle caps, but help sort, store, and make our first of what we hope to be MANY more benches---as well as other improvements to our parks. Starting to focus now on the West Park playground. Want to know more? Please attend the next VPI meeting at 7 PM on Tuesday, September 15 at First Baptist Church in Virden.

Thank you to the Virden Parks Initiative for the donation of the new bench! Linda Morrison also generously donated the beautiful Hibiscus as well.

09/02/2026

Looking for someone or a local company with a large truck willing to make a trip to Evansville Indiana to deliver our bottle caps and bring back the finished benches. It's about a 6 hour round trip. Anyone willing to help us out?

07/17/2026

The next VPI meeting scheduled for next Tuesday has been postponed until the following week, Tuesday, July 28th. Please share and help spread the word!

07/05/2026

ATTENTION all VPI members and ANYONE interested in helping --- this is a good opportunity for us to finally move on an OSLAD grant application!
Massie & Massie has completed our latest request for a focused Large, Medium, and Small project proposal pulled from our Master plan.
Rather than explain what all that means here in this post, plan NOW to attend our next Virden Parks Initiative meeting on Tuesday, July 21, at 7 PM. It will be held at First Baptist Church's Pitman Hall located at 157 W. Jackson St.
While it may LOOK like the VPI has not been actively working lately, that is sincerely NOT the case---please attend this meeting and see EXACTLY what has been happening! Hope to see you there!!

IDNR is accepting applications for Open Space Land Acquisition and Development, or OSLAD, grants through Aug. 31.

A total of $37.5 million is available for this round of OSLAD grants. IDNR will provide funding to cover 90% of eligible projects in economically distressed communities. In the most recent round of OSLAD awards announced in January, 20 underserved locations received grants for local park projects.

In addition, communities whose parks need to be rebuilt as a result of storm damage are encouraged to apply for OSLAD grants. Under state administrative rules, entities recovering from storm damage can apply as physically distressed communities, allowing them to only need 10% matching funds.

Learn more here: https://dnr.illinois.gov/grants/openspacelandsaquisitiondevelopment-grant.html

06/23/2026

We are looking for some groups or individuals to sort bottle caps. Comment below if you are interested

05/18/2026

We meet at First Baptist Church, 157 W. Jackson St. in Virden inside Pitman Hall at the back of the church. Please join us!!!