By Nick Wagoner
Senior Writer

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The rain created puddles big enough that one volunteer joked that the group of volunteers assembled at Lincoln Park in East St. Louis on Tuesday afternoon should simply build some walls around them and create a new swimming pool.

While that didn’t happen, the thunderstorms and pelting rain weren’t enough to keep a group of about 350 people, including essentially the entire St. Louis Rams organization, from constructing a new playground, benches and picnic tables in the once-downtrodden park.

“Any NFL team owes a lot to the community that it functions in,” Rams coach Steve Spagnuolo said. “I think our organization knows it owes a lot to the St. Louis community. This was one small way to kind of give back. I’ve said this before but I think the players and coaches get maybe more out of it than the people that enjoy it because it makes us feel good to be able to help.”

As part of the Rams’ mission as an organization, the franchise has placed an increased emphasis on being a strong community partner. That presence was felt strongly in East St. Louis on Tuesday as the entire roster of players and coaches and most of the staff descended on the park.

Starting at around 9 a.m. with the help of some other volunteers including the South End New Development Organization, the East St. Louis Park District, residents of East St. Louis and organizers from the non-profit organization KaBOOM!, the Rams contingent set about turning the muddy marsh of the rundown Lincoln Park into a colorful, vibrant and safe place for children in the community to play.

After thunderstorms pushed some of the construction portion of the day inside, the players and coaches arrived and put in some work. Needless to say, the arrival of a football team can certainly expedite the process of moving over 1,000 pounds of mulch.

“We have muddy conditions out here,” guard Richie Incognito said. “We’ve got people sliding, but we’re having fun out here. It’s for a great cause. We got a lot of work done, we only had an hour, but we got a lot in.”

Although the rain pushed the schedule back, by the end of the day, the remaining group had assembled and placed a new playground with new equipment, replacing the old equipment which had been in place for about 60 years.

In addition to the playground structure and mulch put in place, the volunteers built and placed tree benches and picnic tables for kids and adults alike.

Through the relentless teamwork of the participants, almost everything was completed around 4 p.m. Soon after there was a ribbon cutting ceremony and the park was reopened with its new look playground, tables and benches.

The design for the playground came from a combination of drawings put forth by children who attended a “Design Day” even in April in which they were allowed to let their imaginations run wild with the hopes that those dreams could be brought to life in Lincoln Park.

The build day was the first opportunity for the Rams to work with KaBOOM! and is one of many that KaBOOM! has undertaken.

The idea was the brainchild of Spagnuolo, who wanted to assemble the entire organization to work toward completing a goal. It also doubled as one final opportunity for the team to bond before parting ways for the summer.

“I thought the people in this organization and the people that were involved with it really did a terrific job,” Spagnuolo said. “I really do think our players got a lot out of it. I thought it was a good way for our team to end. They did something together, it didn’t really have to do with football, it had more to do with giving back to the community.”

And it’s only the beginning of what Spagnuolo and the Rams envision for the future of the community.