What Berthoud's Lemonade Stands Actually Bought at Adaptive Park

In July 2021, a neighborhood garage sale in Farmstead had a lemonade stand. The Bowling family set a goal of $4,500, half the cost of one harness swing for a planned pocket park. The developer had offered to match whatever they raised. That first stand raised $11,000.

Five years later, on September 5, 2026, Berthoud Adaptive Park opened at 885 Tenderfoot Drive. The Loveland Reporter-Herald reported that hundreds of families came the first morning. The project raised $1.6 million. The lemonade stands brought in a little over $50,000 of that, or roughly 3 percent. Lemonade covered very little of the total. What the stands did was show that the community would back the project, and each time that happened, a larger funder followed.

A $9,000 Swing With a Match Attached

It started with one question. When the Bowlings moved into a new development in Berthoud, Lauren Bowling asked the developer about accessible play equipment. The developer offered to install a swing with a harness. The quote came back at $9,000. Bowling offered to raise the money, and the developer said he would match it dollar for dollar and install it for free.

The first stand changed the size of the project. According to the Reporter-Herald's account, the developers, Edwards Development and later Farmstead, wanted to build more than one swing after seeing the response. They offered a bigger parcel of land and introduced Bowling to Star Playgrounds, which went on to design the park. A single piece of equipment for a pocket park grew into a public playground.

The project also needed a formal home for the money. The Berthoud Surveyor reported that Can'd Aid, a nonprofit, became the project's fiscal sponsor, so donations could be collected and spent under its nonprofit structure.

Each Yes Raised the Stakes

Laid out year by year, the stands look like a fuse more than a funding source. Each one was modest, and each was followed by a bigger commitment from someone else.

The 2022 match made every donation count twice for a few months. The Town's 2024 vote was the turning point. The Surveyor reported that the Town Board voted unanimously to authorize up to $650,000 from park development funds. Its earlier coverage of the vote said the money came from uncommitted park development and improvement funds. Ten months after that vote, the project reached its goal.

The stands didn't stop after the large pledges arrived. They ran every summer from 2021 through 2024, and the Reporter-Herald noted that other children held lemonade stands for the park as well.

Who Paid for the Rest

The Berthoud Adaptive Park Project page run by Can'd Aid lists the large pledges behind the $1.6 million total:

• Town of Berthoud: $650,000, about 40 percent of the total
• Schroyer Resources: $200,000, about 12.5 percent
• LGI Homes in Colorado, Dream Finders Homes and Post Modern Development: named pledges, amounts not listed
• Community Foundation of Northern Colorado: the final donation that completed the goal

The page credits the remainder to residents, local businesses, foundations and volunteers. The Town and Schroyer Resources together pledged a little more than half. Homebuilders made up much of the rest of the named list, which fits how the project started, with a developer's offer at a neighborhood pocket park.

There are two totals because they measure different things. The $1.6 million is the fundraising goal the project reached in November 2024. In August 2025, the Surveyor reported that more than $2 million had been raised once in-kind donations were counted. According to that article, the extra support paid for the "Stars and Moon" features on the wish list as well as the basics.

Some of the help came as labor. The Surveyor's call for volunteers asked for help on August 22 and 23, 2025, with 50 slots in each morning and afternoon shift, open to anyone 14 or older, from people who could use a tool to people who could lift heavy loads.

What the Money Bought at 885 Tenderfoot Drive

The park is built to look like a red barn. Many of its features address a specific design problem. The Reporter-Herald's opening-day coverage and the Surveyor's preview list the following:

• Swings: a wheelchair-accessible swing and several swings with harnesses, the piece of equipment the project started with
• Ramped play structures that reach the upper levels of the barn
• Camera-activated games, chosen because motion-activated games don't always register a wheelchair
• Railings and handlebars throughout the structure
• A slide with a transfer seat, plus non-plastic slides designed to avoid static that can interfere with cochlear implants
• A zipline and a merry-go-round
• Shaded picnic tables
• A permanent lemonade stand and a DJ booth

The layout is intentional. Lauren Bowling told the Reporter-Herald that "it was really important to have everything integrated," and described it as "inclusive play for everybody … not a separate space." The accessible equipment is mixed in with the rest of the playground, so children of different ages and abilities use the same structures.

The Surveyor described the project as Berthoud's first "fully adaptive and inclusive" playground. In its explanation, accessible equipment such as a wheelchair swing lets more children get onto the equipment, while inclusive design such as the non-plastic slides goes further.

The permanent lemonade stand is a nod to how the project began. Erin Starr, CEO of Star Playgrounds, designed the park and was at the opening when the gates opened. Free lemonade was served at the opening, which a Reporter-Herald events listing had scheduled for 10 a.m., alongside community booths and resource tables.

Where It Fits in Berthoud's Park Map

When Lauren Bowling started planning more than five years ago, the nearest accessible playground was about a 45-minute drive away, in Fort Collins, Greeley or Westminster. The area now has several options. During the years of fundraising, Berthoud's own Town Park was renovated to add an ADA-accessible playground, and Loveland opened Willow Bend Park in 2025 with several accessible playground features.

The two Berthoud parks were built very differently. Town Park's renovation was a capital project. In 2023 the Surveyor reported that the Town Board had awarded the Phase I bid with a $6.25 million construction budget, covering a public splash pad, leisure lawns and playgrounds. Adaptive Park started with one family's request and drew in the Town's money later. The $650,000 the Town committed was about 10 percent of the Town Park Phase I budget, yet it was roughly 40 percent of the money raised for Adaptive Park.

That difference explains how a town of Berthoud's size ended up with two inclusive playgrounds within a few years. The Town joined a project that a resident had already shown could raise money, on land the developer had offered, with a designer already chosen. Berthoud Mayor William Karspeck said at the opening that the Bowlings showed how much impact a single family can have on a whole community, according to the Reporter-Herald.

At the ribbon cutting, Lauren Bowling described what happened in her own words: "I am just a mom who asked a question, and 1,001 people said, 'Yes, how can we help?'" The Town, the developers, the homebuilders and the foundation each committed after the stands had shown local support. The park is at 885 Tenderfoot Drive, and the playground now has a permanent lemonade stand.

At MCM Collective, we follow how Berthoud's public spaces get built, from developer pocket parks to Town Board votes. Those projects are part of what neighbors on both sides of a sale point to when they describe a street. If you live near Tenderfoot Drive or elsewhere in Berthoud and want to know where your home stands this season, request a home valuation and our team will walk you through it.