When Elizabeth Downey was a child, she remembers riding her bike to play at the Gleason Park playground and watching the students at Indiana University Northwest.

As Downey grew older, the playground declined and went without repair. Now, she’s one of two students who led the charge to restore the Gleason Park playground, now known as the Blossoms of Change.

“To see this come to fruition has been amazing,” Downey said. “Now I can bring my daughter over here to swing. I can do my homework while she’s playing. It’s a real full circle moment.”

Downey and another IUN student, India Smith, teamed up with their campus groups, the Black Student Union and My Sisters’ Keeper, to help repair the playground, which is across the street from IUN’s Dunes Medical/Professional Building at the corner of

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