NESN celebrated the opening of a new playground at Worcester’s Harrington Field park, an initiative backed by the Worcester native who led the regional sports network until last October.
The new playground officially opened on Wednesday afternoon, with a group of children eagerly awaiting the ribbon cutting, which followed speeches by City officials and other stakeholders in the effort to construct the playground.
Contributors to the Worcester playground project include Westborough software firm eClinicalWorks, The Red Sox Foundation, The Boston Bruins Foundation, and The WooSox Foundation, according to a Wednesday press release from Miracle Recreation, the Missouri-based company which provided the playground equipment.
Other contributors include Spectrum, New Hampshire-based television production company Game Creek Video, Clark University, the North Carolina-based Make An Impact Foundation, and the Jack Barry Little League program in Worcester.
Kevin and Kate Mercadante, the operators of Worcester’s Mercadante Funeral Home & Chapel, also chipped in, along with other Mercadante family members.
The project follows the opening of a similar playground by NESN in Roxbury in 2024.
“I just want to thank everybody who has been part of this. The kids are ready to have some fun,” Worcester Mayor Joseph Petty said of the crowd of children patiently waiting for a chance to try out the new equipment on Wednesday.
The playground was designed with input from students at Lake View Elementary School, who sketched up ideas on how they wanted the playground to look during an event at Polar Park in November.
Sean McGrail, a Worcester native and the now-retired CEO and President of NESN, played a role in facilitating the construction of the new playground in his final months with the company.
McGrail, who grew up in a triple decker off Lincoln Street near Green Hill Park before graduating from Saint John’s High School in Shrewsbury, retired from NESN last October after about four decades with the regional sports network.
Charlie Jacobs, CEO of the Boston Bruins, and Tom Werner, chairman of both the Red Sox and the English Premier League’s Liverpool Football Club, told WBJ in November McGrail was instrumental in the success of NESN.
“It was very exciting for me to come to my own hometown and start this initiative with the kids and build a playground here by Harrington Field,” McGrail said in November about the project.
Harrington Field is a six-acre park on the city’s East Side, located at 720 Franklin St. It is named after former Worcester Mayor Francis Harrington, according to the City’s website. In addition to the new playground, it features a basketball court, as well as baseball and softball diamonds. The site is home to the Jack Barry Little League program.
Eric Casey is the managing editor at Worcester Business Journal, who primarily covers the manufacturing and real estate industries.
