BATON ROUGE - Chelsea Brown is keeping her promise to help children without playground equipment at Kerr Warren Park near Plank Road.

"I wanted to bring equipment and help the kids with their summer camp," Brown said. "So I wanted to make it my personal goal to continue bringing equipment to the gym."

Brown has a special connection to the park, seeing as the gym is named after her father, Reggie Brown Junior, who coached at the park for years. Brown's father died in a car accident in 2003 when she was only seven years old.

"It does bring mixed emotions being here," Brown said. "I get sad when I come, so I try not to come a lot."

Brown says when her father coached at the park, it was filled with kids involved in organized activities keeping them busy and off the streets. However, that's not the case these days. Not only is the park lacking in kids, but it's also missing equipment.

"Now, there's not that many kids here," Brown said. "So I think he would be disappointed in how things are going."

Brown said she got the run-around when she called BREC to see what the park needed and how to donate.

"That person was in a meeting and they were supposed to call me back, but I never got a call back," Brown said. "So I took matters into my own hands and brought them here."

BREC officials say participation with activities at Kerr Warren Park has fallen over the years, but the facility is included in their 2024 master plan to revitalize facilities and increase activities in neighborhoods.