Jun. 24—A group of children gathered at Lake Sara Beach Park Friday to take part in a ribbon cutting ceremony and try out a new sidewalk obstacle course.

The local artist who painted the pirate-themed obstacle course that consists of several different games, Sara Roepke, said it took her about four days to complete the project, and she didn’t let the recent heat wave deter her. Roepke lives on Lake Sara and has been helping a local organization, Lake Sara Forever, with its efforts to revitalize Lake Sara Beach Park.

“It was a fun activity,” Roepke said. “I’ve always enjoyed art, and I always like to do those creative type of things.”

As a former grade school teacher, Roepke wanted to design an obstacle course that would be both educational and entertaining for children visiting the park, particularly those who are between 2 and 10 years old. She explained that the brightly colored obstacle course is meant to draw in young children, and there are numbers painted along the obstacle course that both guide children though the course and teach them to count.

“Kids can learn their colors when they’re 1 and 2 years old, so you could do the colors with the little kids. And then counting by 10s, that’s an older concept, so that could be for maybe 8,9, 10-year-olds,” she said. “I wanted to incorporate all those concepts into the obstacle course, so the kids could walk through it and do all of the different games.”

One of the residents who attended the ribbon cutting Friday, Linda Ross, has known Roepke for years, and they both live near each other on Lake Sara.

“It’s beautiful,” Ross said of the obstacle course. “What child wouldn’t want to come out and play some games there?”

In May of 2022, Ross helped Roepke paint the bathhouse that is located directly next to the new obstacle course, and she said she’s known that Roepke is a talented artist since the two attended kindergarten together.

“She was the one getting straight As on all her art projects,” Ross said of Roepke.

Ross attended the ribbon cutting with her two goldendoodles and her neighbor Audrey Lissak, 10, who was also impressed with the obstacle course.

“It’s pretty nice,” Lissak said. “I like it.”

The obstacle course is the latest addition to Lake Sara Beach Park, and it appears that Lake Sara Forever’s efforts in the past few years to bring life back to the park are beginning to work. In fact, Tom Ryan, a trustee of the Lake Sara Forever Fund and the resident spearheading the project at Lake Sara, said he has recently seen a significant increase in the number of people visiting the beach.

“Our goal was to have fun, fitness and tranquility for everybody and most importantly, memories,” he said. “We’ve accomplished that for all ages with all the different games we have.”

Lake Sara Forever completed the second phase of the Lake Sara Beach Park project in the fall of 2023. This phase of the project included the addition of new workout equipment, a fitness challenge course, a half-mile walking trail, four pickle ball courts and a volleyball court.

“This is just another addition to all we’ve got available for kids,” Ryan said. “We’re ahead of where we thought we’d be at this time.”

Lake Sara Forever is still finalizing future plans for the park, but Ryan said the group should have a completed master plan for the third phase of the project by the end of this summer. Potential plans currently include adding a third playground to the park with a slide that would be converted into a lighthouse.

“The theme of that third playground would be a lighthouse-based slide down the slope with an oceanside pier coming out and zip lines because of the slope there,” Ryan said.

According to Ryan, other potential future additions to the park include giant chess and checker sets, all access parking and a multi-story observation tower.

“The one thing I learned when we moved from Michigan to Illinois is the high points and the view points are overpasses on the interstate. That’s as high as you get,” he said.

Additionally, one of the underlying goals of the Lake Sara Beach Park project is to make the area more ADA compliant to ensure that all residents are able to enjoy everything that’s being added there.

“Our sidewalks are all to ADA standards,” Ryan said. “We tried to make everything all access.”

Nick Taylor can be reached at nick.taylor@effinghamdailynews.com.