Oneida Middle Hosts Historic Groundbreaking for Byrdi’s Playground
By Bo Kidd
Oneida, TN – What do you get when you take a dream of a young educator, add a large portion of dedication, hard-work and grittiness, sprinkle in a bit of stubbornness and laughter, top it off with a splash of compassion, and pack it all in with a lot of love? You get Oneida Middle School’s newest addition: Byrdi’s Playground.
On Wednesday, March 13th, nearly 500 people were in attendance as Oneida Middle School Principal Kelly Chitwood along with Oneida Director of Schools Dr. Jeanny Phillips, members of the Oneida Board of Education, and the family of Houston Byrd broke ground on an all-inclusive playground that will enable Oneida’s students with special needs to play alongside their classmates at school. Byrdi’s Playground, named after Houston “Byrdi” Byrd who dreamt up the concept, will be located where the current gravel parking lot sits along Main Street on the school’s north side.
“It was a beautiful day and an exciting day for all of us,” said Chitwood. “An emotional day for us as Houston came to me several years ago one morning and asked, ‘What’s it going to take for me to get a playground?’ I said $20,000 and I might be able to get you a good set of swings. He said, ‘Well we’re going to do it” and I laughed.” Byrd told her his first fundraiser was going to be a t-shirt. “That was our relationship though. I’d laugh at him and then he’d turn around and find a way to prove me wrong,” Chitwood commented emotionally. Then, an unexpected tragedy would happen as Houston Byrd, at the age of 25, would suddenly pass away just two weeks before Christmas in 2020.
That initial fundraiser sparked multiple others including selling snow cones, an “Egg Your Yard” Easter fundraiser, candy sales, and many others until the school had raised over $150,000 in fundraising and private donations. Then, in November of 2023, the Tennessee Department of Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities awarded OMS with a grant for more than $425,000 that will help complete the project. The grant was written by former OSSD Coordinated School Health Director Dr. Melinda McCartt. Chitwood, who has now stepped into that role, was very emotional as the community came together again to witness the beginning of a project that was thought of at first as a simple pipe dream.
Director of Schools Dr. Jeanny Phillips added, “Houston was an amazing teacher. He absolutely loved his students and most of all, they loved him. If you have middle school students excited to get to school, that’s a huge feat and he was able to do that. Houston was always welcoming in his classroom, cracking jokes, and always showed unconditional love for his students day in and day out. I’m so happy that we are able to fulfill this dream of his with Byrdi’s Playground. I know that he has a smile on his face and will have an even greater smile once it is completed!”
The construction will be done in three phases with a completion date scheduled for June 2024.