Appleton holds a ribbon cutting ceremony for Lundgaard Park, July 24, 2024. PC: Fox 11 Online
APPLETON, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — An Appleton park honoring a fallen firefighter is showing off its upgrades.
The city held a ribbon cutting ceremony for Lundgaard Park on Lightning Drive Wednesday.
It features a fire station-themed playground and basketball and pickleball courts.
The park is dedicated to Mitchell Lundgaard, a 14-year veteran of the Appleton Fire Department, who was shot and killed while responding to a medical call at the Valley Transit Center in May of 2019. He left behind a wife and three sons.
“When we were thinking as a team about how do we memorialize Mitch, honor the sacrifice he made for this community and celebrate his memory in a way that would be meaningful, first we had to understand who he was and what he was about and as we learned more and talked more about it, a park just seemed so fitting as a permanent memorial to him because he was dynamic, he was active, he was engaged, he loved his kids, he loved sports, he loved social connection and that was so much of who he was,” Appleton mayor Jake Woodford said.
At the time of its dedication in May of 2020, it was just lawn the city had set aside for park land years prior.
The location was perfect: next to Appleton fire station #6.
Park design planning and public input began in 2021 and in September of 2023, the project broke ground.
“Our goal with this park, in part, was to create a place where Mitch’s memory would be honored in happy ways, in ways that were about the future and about hope and being together as a community and that’s exactly what this park is going to serve as,” Woodford said. There are plans to add other things to the park, including a pavilion. “That’s the beauty of parks, they’re never really finished,” Woodford said.
Lundgaard’s widow Lindsey, says she’s loves receiving positive comments from the community on how much they are enjoying the park. “This park has turned out absolutely amazing and Mitch would definitely love it. He loved big slides and these definitely exceeded those expectations. The boys when we drove by the first time they saw them, were in awe in how big the slides were,” she said.
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