Inspire! Hutchinson Summer 2025

June

July August

Community Spirit Starts Here

At Hutch Rec, we believe parks, programs, and people are the heartbeat of a community. Through inclusive events, neighborhood outreach, and creative placemaking, we help connect residents, activate shared spaces, and strengthen civic pride. Our work aims to building healthy, vibrant, and welcoming places where people belong and engage. Whether it’s a festival downtown or a meeting in a neighborhood park, Hutch Rec helps bring healthy living and community spirit to Hutchinson.

Community Champions:

Grace Arbor’s Summer of Neighborhood Connection

Story by: Adam Stewart College Grove Resident

Residents in Hutchinson’s Grace Arbor Neighborhood have a clear, concrete goal in the next couple of years: the creation of a neighborhood park on the former site of Central Junior High School, now owned by the Salvation Army.

“I would love to see more kids out playing in the fresh air at a park,” resident Rosa Fast said.

of Hutchinson are in talks about the city leasing the field in front of the Salvation Army’s building for a park, and last year the Parks Department commissioned concept plans and held a series of meetings in the neighborhood to get feedback from residents.

Fast likes the idea of a walking path in a park, a place to take her granddaughter to play, and space to have family gatherings, all of which were included in the latest round of

But neighbors aren’t all content to wait for a lease, bond issue, final plans, project bidding, and construction to be completed. To that end, resident organizers are trying to start treating the space like a park now, with the approval of the Salvation Army.

Last year they put out a soccer goal to encourage kids to play there at the same time the Salvation Army installed benches, both supported by grants from the Hutchinson Community Foundation.

Farmington Park

Hosts Donuts In The Park

Residents of Farmington Park Neighborhood gathered for a sweet start to the day in mid- April with Donuts in the Park.

Neighbors met up on the basketball court for coffee, and donuts while sharing great conversation and building connections.

It was a simple, meaningful way to bring neighbors together and start the day with community spirit!

And this year the neighborhood is going to have three events in the proposed park, supported by another grant from the Hutchinson Community Foundation.

Past picnics have been Fast’s favorite things that the neighborhood has done.

“It’s nice to do more things as a community outdoors and meet new people,” she said. The park project isn’t the finish line for neighbors, though.

“We have a goal, and I think it’s obtainable,” neighbor Adam Piña said. “The big project is the park,

but once that’s done, what’s next?”

The bigger picture is making Grace Arbor a neighborhood that more people choose to live and invest in, he said.

To make progress on that, it’s important to know what gets in the way, and what do people need.

“We just want to have this be a nice, clean neighborhood,” Fast said. “We want it to be a neighborhood,” her husband, Larry Fast, said, emphasizing “neighborhood.”

One of the first projects Grace Arbor tackled after organizing in

2019 was a neighborhood cleanup day.

They rented three big roll-off dumpsters to help neighborhood residents dispose of brush and junk, and a couple of volunteers took a trailer around the neighborhood to pick things up for people who didn’t have vehicles to carry stuff to the dumpsters.

Larry Fast really enjoyed that project. The response from neighbors was very good, he said. The neighborhood filled up all three dumpsters by the time the cleanup was done.

Don’t miss Grace Arbor’s Gatherings Barbeque Saturday, Oct. 11 5-7 p.m.

N. Walnut Ice Cream Social Saturday, June 14 6-8 p.m. 700 N. Walnut