Friends of Broad Ripple Park

We want to extend a big thank you to the thousands of people who visited and enjoyed the Open House for the new Broad Ripple Park Family Center! It is a fabulous facility and an incredible new amenity for the entire neighborhood.

This always has been a busy family center, often called the busiest among all of Indy Parks, serving tens of thousands of people every year pre-covid. Now this new center, built for programming and not to be a dark, windowless library, provides twice the programming space overlooking White River and the park and providing more usable green space than before.

Bonus: It comes with a tenant paying rent to Indy Parks — the same Community Health primary care physicians who have served in Broad Ripple behind Einstein Bagels for 20 years or more. They have visions of providing healthy living and nutrition classes along with their expanded capacity for physical therapy and pediatric care. Parks and public health go together.

Thank you for supporting this tremendous new addition to our favorite park!

The indoor gym will feature pickleball, basketball, futsol and more. Walking or jogging on the track is free during open hours and exercise rooms are at the far end with amazing views of White River. Photo by Sue Huffer.

If you have visited Broad Ripple Park in recent years, you may have enjoyed the beautiful Pollinator Garden along the sidewalk near the pool. Gold Level Master Gardener Mary Durkin was the guiding spirit for the Garden and spent many hours planning, planting, and caring for the beautiful native plants that nurture our native wildlife. Sadly, she passed away recently and is sorely missed.

Mary brought so much passion and knowledge to the garden, and its resurrection has brightened the park and given pleasure to many park visitors. Her delight for seeing the rich variety of both plants and pollinators is still contagious.

The Friends of Broad Ripple Park will do all we can to continue Mary’s work and plan to honor her legacy with a memorial. For now, you can enjoy a visit to the garden narrated by Mary in our Pollinator Garden video.