Wondering whatever became of plans to name a new pavilion at Stanbery Park in Mount Washington after Kyle Plush?
Construction of the Kyle Plush Pavilion is complete, and a ribbon-cutting ceremony will be held in the spring with the family of the 16-year-old boy who suffocated after being trapped under a seat that flipped over him in a minivan.
Kyle's unanswered 911 calls for help from a parking lot at Seven Hills School in Madisonville in 2018 made headlines and prompted Cincinnati officials to reexamine the city’s emergency-response system.
But Kyle is being remembered at Stanbery Park for a different reason: his unpublicized years of volunteering for Cincinnati Parks.
The Anderson Township boy spent a lot of time during his short life at the park system’s camps – beginning as a “nature detective” when he was 6 and evolving into a counselor-in-training at 13.
'Kyle's life embodies the present and future of Parks'
“There could not be a more meaningful tribute than to name the new Stanbery Pavilion after Kyle Plush,” Rocky Merz, spokesman for the Cincinnati Park Board, said.
“Kyle’s life embodies the present and future of Parks, and what a deep connection to place and to nature can do for us all.”
The pavilion in Stanbery Park has long been a dream of Mount Washington residents.
It cost $493,000, with just over $350,000 of that coming from a state grant and the rest coming from other donors such as the park board and the Cincinnati Parks Foundation.
“The new pavilion and stage will be a welcome new asset for the park attracting more events and people to Stanbery Park,” Merz said.
“It will also be used to store the trebuchet's used to chuck pumpkins each fall, something needed for many years to protect the equipment.”
Merz is referring to Mount Washington’s annual Pumpkin Chuck, a fundraiser for the Stanbery Park Advisory Council that includes tossing pumpkins into the Clough Creek ravine.
The advisory council will sell engraved bricks next spring to fund the ongoing maintenance of the pavilion.
It will also be seeking a sponsor to help fund programs at the pavilion with live music, movies, poetry reading, puppet shows for children and the like.
Mount Washington residents initially suggested the Cincinnati Park Board name the pavilion for Kyle’s grandparents, Joe and Judy Zehren, for their years of volunteer service at Stanbery Park, Merz said.
He said the couple asked that the pavilion be named after their grandson, and the Board of Park Commissioners embraced the idea.
The pavilion is in the eastern portion of the park, next to Oxford Avenue in open space north of a hiking-trail loop.
It’s a place with which Kyle was familiar.
“Creek Day at nature camp was always (Kyle’s) favorite at Stanbery nature camp. He would bring aluminum foil with him so he could construct boats to sail on the creek,” Wade Walcutt, director of Cincinnati Parks, said in a report to the park board.
Walcutt said Kyle kept returning to camp, much to the delight of camp directors.
“Every year he was bigger and smarter and more filled with wonder. When Kyle was 12, we encouraged him to be a counselor-in-training,” Walcutt said.
“The following summer, as soon as he reached 13, he became a counselor-in-training. It was amazing to watch this little boy become a young man who was great with small children.
“He was patient, attentive, and kind. The three qualities we look for the most,” Walcutt said.
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