St. Peter’s Episcopal Church hasn’t always had the vital congregation it has now, but they’ve immersed themselves in the community to make up for lost time. While The Bridge has been gaining popularity, their next endeavor, renovating the community playground, is well underway.

The playground is especially popular during the warmer months, particularly during the farmer’s market. However, the playground was built in 2003 and has not seen much updating since. Many of the jungle gyms need repairs or complete replacement.

“It just needs a lot of work if it’s to continue,” said Rev. Scott Ciosek.

To raise the estimated $50,000 it would take to renovate and update the community playground, in collaboration with the Padanaram Business Association, St. Peter’s began renting out their ten free parking spaces to local business owners in October.

“As a church, we want our space to be available to the community,” Ciosek said. “And the same message for the playground as well.”

Padanaram has seen a resurgence in its vitality in recent years.

“The people that have businesses there, they don’t  want to park their car in front of their business. So if they can park their car over here, it leaves more room for their customer to park,” said St. Peter’s Episcopal Church Senior Warden Betty Furness.

The spaces are rented in monthly increments, though some people love their new spaces enough that they pay three months in advance. One person even paid their parking space for the entire year, said Furness.

Though the playground is located on the church grounds, it is open to families all across the community, Furness said. “Everyone in the whole community is able to bring their children here.”

It’s served as a good way to build relations with the rest of the area, said Ciosek. St. Peter’s has been seeing much more foot traffic since the inception of The Bridge: A Center for Hope and Healing, as well as their meditation classes.

“With the numbers of people we’re going to be getting here, we’re going to be helping out all these little businesses and restaurants,” Ciosek said.

“It takes a community to build a playground,” said Furness. “Our goal for 2016 is to have more fundraisers.”

The church has seen a lot of support from the community, particularly at the Padanaram Christmas Festival where they received many donations to put towards that new playground.

“We’re stepping out of this regular model of what people expect from a church to be, and we’re getting out of the community so it’s a pretty cool thing,” Ciosek said.

“We’re growing together, that’s how I feel,” said Furness.

St. Peter’s Episcopal Church is open to donations for the playground, as well as item donors and contracting volunteers.