NORWAY — New playground equipment will be installed at Lake Pennesseewassee Park later this summer, after selectmen Thursday accepted a nearly $20,000 donation from New Balance shoe company. 

It’s the second time the company has added to the park, which it built in 2006 as a series of trails and playground equipment for children and adults.

Selectmen unanimously accepted a $19,726 grant from the New Balance Foundation, part of the company’s larger mission to promote healthy lifestyles and “help children around the world discover and nurture their movement spark,” New Balance’s Noreen Bigelow wrote in a letter to the town.

The company has a manufacturing plant on Cottage Street.

Its donation will pay for slides and swings. Two swings are designed so an adult can sit in tandem, facing their child, Debra Partridge, director of Norway Parks & Recreation said.

“If you’re pushing a child in a swing, you don’t see their face,” Partridge said. “This helps with the bonding experience.”  

Money will also be used to purchase two rocking honeybees, chosen “because the honeybee is in danger,” she said. “This raises awareness of that.”

An elevated sandbox will also be built. 

The park’s slides were quiet Thursday afternoon as children making the most of the sun spent their first full week out of school on the beach and in the water. 

For a few younger ones, the playground was a hive of activity. Dustin Steves of South Paris babbled excitedly, two hands on a steering wheel, as he rocked a red-and-yellow plastic firetruck on a spring back and forth. Watching the 18-month-old closely was Allyson Friend, who said the equipment would give her nephew more options to play.

“We would use the equipment more often if there were more choices. He’s just learning, and needs different stimulation,” Friend said. 

Nearby, Hebron resident Katie Dyer bottle-fed her 6-month-old daughter, Allyanna Martinez, keeping a close eye on her nephew, Brock Desrosier, as he slid down a beige plastic slide.

Young children get bored with the water quickly, and the playground keeps them occupied, Dyer said.

“He likes the slide, but he’s not picky.”

Partridge expected the installation to be completed later this summer. 

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