Boys and Girls Clubs open WWE-sponsored playground

LORAIN — What started as a garden, then gave way to an unkept patch of land next to the Desich Family Campus in south Lorain, is now a playground designed by four teens from the local Boys and Girls Club of Northeast Ohio. The space, funded by a $100,000 donation from sports entertainment company WWE for the equipment and $15,000 from Cricket Wireless for seating and umbrellas, was designed by Shavar Patrick, 14, Jordan Finley, 13, Edelisse Rivera, 14, and Neviah Mates, 14, all club kids from Lorain. The teens — alongside WWE Superstars Grayson Waller, Austin Theory and WWE Women's Tag Team Champions Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn — opened the space Friday morning. WWE is in Northeast Ohio for today's SummerSlam at Cleveland Browns Stadium. Boys and Girls Clubs of Northeast Ohio CEO Allen Smith said the organization is grateful to WWE for making the playground possible and letting its club kids be involved in its design. The Boys and Girls Clubs' partnership with WWE is about 9 years old, said Frank Sanchez Jr., Boys and Girls Clubs of America national vice president of business and community affair. And that partnership has created "super spaces" across the country, he said. "WWE is investing in Boys and Girls Clubs and wherever there's a need, wherever there's a need for a teen center or technology center or educational center or playground, WWE steps in and partners with us and invests in our community," he said. Shavar, Jordan, Edelisse and Neviah were nominated by the staff at the Desich Family Campus to participate as "super builders" for the playground — the four of them coming together to decide what equipment would be on the site and how the final space would look. For their work, each received a $5,000 scholarship from WWE. Shavar, a freshman at Lorain High School, said working on the project was a special experience because he enjoys helping out younger children. He has been coming to the club for about seven years, he said, and remembered when the land was an overgrown garden — so it was beautiful to see it used on Friday, he said. Shavar plans to study for a career in information technology and is already attending Early College. He said he plans to use his scholarship to pay for his education. For Shavar's parents, Edward and Helen Benjamin, seeing their son's hard work over the past several weeks was amazing. Helen Benjamin said the leadership skills Shavar and the other teens learned through the program are also a plus. "I am so proud of my son and all of them," she said. Her husband agreed. "I think he did an awesome job," Edward Benjamin said. "… When he gets old enough, he's going to work here." Jordan, a freshman at Lorain High School, said designing the space had its ups and downs, but felt good to see it completed and the younger kids playing on it on Friday. Edelisse, an eighth grader at General Johnnie Wilson Middle School, agreed it was a good experience. She took credit for the swings and plants placed around the edge of the fence. Neviah, a freshman at Horizon Science Academy, said she was in shock when she was chosen to help design the playground. She has been going to the club for about a year and said it felt great to know other kids can come to the playground and have a safe space to play. Neviah plans to study to be a nurse and wants to use her scholarship to further her education. WWE announcer Byron Saxton introduced each of the wrestlers for Friday's event and led the kids in singing "Happy Birthday" to Theory. Smith held a brief moment of silence for Mike Conibear, Boys and Girls Clubs of Northeast Ohio's director of government relations. Conibear, 66, died on July 26. Conibear founded the Boys and Girls Clubs of Lorain County, which merged with several other clubs to create the Boys and Girls Clubs of Northeast Ohio in 2019. "This would not be possible without Mike Conibear and we appreciate his contribution to this organization and even these specific grounds," Smith said. "Mike would be so happy and I'm sure Mike would have been here today." Contact Carissa Woytach at (440) 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com.