Thousands of Southeast Texans attend Tugboat Island playground ribbon cutting over the weekend
Published 4:49 pm Tuesday, April 1, 2025
Jonah and Adeline Jordan got an early peek at the newly opened Tugboat Island Saturday in Port Neches. (Courtesy photo)
A scene from the Tugboat Island ribbon cutting Sunday. (Sierra Kondos/Special to The News)
Committee members Eric Sullivan, left, and Rita Morgan, along with Port Neches Councilmember Terry Schwertner and Mayor Glenn Johnson celebrate the grand opening of the park Sunday. (Sierra Kondos/Special to The News)
Volunteers and their families had a chance to play at the park Saturday. (Courtesy photo)
A scene from Sunday’s celebration. (Sierra Kondos/Special to The News)
The newly rebuilt Tugboat Island officially reopened Sunday in Port Neches. (Sierra Kondos/Special to The News)
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PORT NECHES — A single person’s advocacy for change can spark a ripple effect, leading to a cumulative impact that contributes to a better world. This was proven over the weekend, as over 3,500 Southeast Texans congregated in Port Neches to celebrate the grand opening of the Tugboat Island playground on Sunday, March 30.
Tugboat Island playground is located at 601 Grisby Avenue in Port Neches.
Five years ago, the Tugboat Island playground was closed to the community due to unsafe conditions which led to parents posting on Facebook about missing their park. However, only one mother took it upon herself to advocate for change, a new place for children to play.
“I thought, “Man, we have so many handy men around here, why can’t we just get together and fix it,” Rita Morgan, the Port Neches mother said. “I went to City Council and talked to the mayor to see what it would take, and I was advised that a park company would have to go out there to assess it. I found out it was a lot more detailed than what I knew, but they were in favor of the idea as the park was really torn up at the time.”
The park company said it would be cheaper to tear it down and start over.
“The park had already outlasted its time, about 15 years, and it basically lasted 25,” she said.
The next step for Morgan was to begin a non-profit to raise funds.
“Tugboat Island Restore came to life and we had to wait around six months for the paperwork to go through,” she said. “Then, I got into contact with two men, James Bond and Eric Sullivan. Together, we got the old park torn down and began raising funds for the new build.”
The original playground was a cherished spot for many kids in the Port Neches community, built in 1996, but unfortunately, it was dismantled in 2020 due to age and deterioration.
“In 1996, I was a volunteer for the first round of the build, Eric Sullivan said. So I just came out as a volunteer, my mother in law was one of the general coordinators, and it was the same The group that led the first build was Leathers and Associates, and they did a community build, just like we had this time. This park was not just a local playground; it hosted children from as far away as Jasper, Lumberton, and Vidor, with up to 15 buses visiting annually for school events,” Eric Sullivan said. “For 25 years, it served as a place where countless memories were made.”
Sullivan said they began by inviting students from Port Neches Independent School district to submit drawings for the new design, resulting in over 400 entries that inspired the park architect from Leathers and Associates.
“They are the same company that helped build the first park, but now, his son is leading the way,” he said. “The new playground will span over 20,000 square feet, making it one of the largest community-built parks in the United States.”
They just needed to raise 1 million dollars to build the new park.
“Well after four long years, we hit every business, refinery and more and we only had raised around $200,000 and I was ready to give up,” he said. “I even had some of the early donors asking for money back if the project wasn’t going to go forward.”
Sullivan said he prayed numerous times and then something happened.
“I was asked to meet a man at the city hall a few months later to discuss a possible donation.,” he said. “The 96-year-old, Ed Hogenson, walked in the room with a cane and I shook his hand. I told him where we were with the park and how much we had raised so far. We needed over $800,000 to finish the fundraising efforts.”
It was incredible what he told me in the next sentence, he said.
“Son, we are going to build this park for the kids,” Hogenson said.
And he wrote a check for over 700 thousand dollars.
“It brought me to tears and I just could not believe it,” Sullivan said. “His donation started a domino effect and another $100,000 from Fish-O-Rama was donated the next week to get us across the finish line.”
Ed Hogenson retired from Texaco and was looking for a community project to support, Debbie Spittler, his daughter, said.
“A lot of volunteers got to know him because he went out there every day, a couple times a day,” she said. “And he’d walk around and visit with people, and they put a chair for him outside the fence, someplace for him to sit and watch. He didn’t want to get in the way. They gave him a cup of coffee and he would sit down and talk to the volunteers at the check-in tent. He would sit down and talk to whoever was working in the tool trailer, and he would be there sometimes at lunch or supper and over at the armory and visit with people and thank people that were volunteering their time. He’s just proud that he could do something that would be for the good of the community, a nice place that kids and families can go and enjoy for many years.”
Volunteers were organized through Indorama Ventures, led by Chad Aycock.
“We are involved in quite a few community projects, fundraising events and community outreach programs,” Aycock said. “We organized different community awareness events. We had luncheons, we went out and did presentations for different Rotary Clubs, presentations at different Chamber of Commerce events, really getting in get in touch with local industries, local businesses helping organize all of their volunteers for the for the event, and it was a pretty large effort, as well as really just public awareness on how general people in the public could volunteer for the project, lots of social media posts and things like that. We had a very organized, what I’ll call a volunteer program.”
The company purchased a volunteer software to help organize all volunteers by their skill sets and skill levels.
“We also had the ability with the software to send out mass notifications to our users on that program,” he said. “Keeping them up to date with information as the project moved on, and to really solicit for more volunteers that way as well.”
This endeavor inspired the owner of a Nederland coffee shop to join the cause.
“Eric and Chad came to talk at the Nederland Rotary Club meeting a few weeks prior to the start of the rebuild talking about volunteer opportunities,” Janna Bartz, owner of the Golden Cup said. “And so, the Nederland Rotary Club decided that we would go out for a couple of days and volunteer.”
Bartz family used to take her out to tugboat Island when she was a kid.
“I was sad whenever they tore it down,” she said. “When they decided to rebuild it, I thought it would be cool to participate, just be a part of that project. So, I brought out fresh coffee every day for two weeks and worked for a few days. It was awesome to see a bunch of the local businesses come together to make the rebuild happen, because a lot of local businesses did contribute, and a lot of local people throughout the area volunteered, and you don’t see that kind of participation much in a community, so it was a unique opportunity. I’m kind of excited to see, whenever I have kids and grandkids in the future, for them to be able to utilize the facility as well.”
The construction took place from February 19 to February 23, and then again from February 26 to March 2. This community-driven project united friends, neighbors, local businesses, schools, and sports teams to create a new playground in just ten days.
“It’s a dream come true for us,” Rita Morgan said. “And for the committee. You know, we really have been sticking it out, thinking, “Are we ever going to get this done? But it really is a dream come true. It’s unbelievable.”
It begins with one person to advocate for change which can have a cumulative effect and contribute to a better world.
