About

Jeff and Cynthia Lambert had a vision in 2009 —A community park in Niwot, just for children.

The Niwot Children’s Park was the brainchild of Jeff and Cynthia Lambert, who moved to Niwot with their children, and were inspired to create a place young children could call their own. The Lamberts purchased the property at 101 First Avenue, across from Whistle Stop Park, in Niwot from Idell Leinweber, a longtime Niwot resident who built a home on the site in the 1950’s with her late husband Charles Leinweber, where they lived for many years.

The Lambert’s developed a plan for a park, which included natural landscaping, several play structures, a large wooly mammoth and fossils representing Colorado’s cultural history.

They approached the Niwot Cultural Arts Association (NCAA), and the NCAA board agreed to partner with them to build the park. The NCAA board saw the park as a facility which would provide a much needed state-of-the-art place for children to play, while helping children understand the cultural heritage of the area, and providing a place for children’s theater performances, art projects and storybook readings. To raise money for the purchase of the property, the NCAA, which is a non-profit charitable organization, applied for a grant through Great Outdoors Colorado, with the assistance of Boulder County. At the same time, the NCAA raised over $20,000 from Niwot residents to contribute towards the purchase of the property, and with the Lambert’s donating a significant portion of the purchase price, as well as a $140,000 GOCO grant to Boulder County, the property was purchased to be the site of a children’s park on July 17, 2013. (Fittingly, as Niwot historian Anne Dyni pointed out, the site was Niwot’s original baseball field in the early 1900s.)

The NCAA formed a building committee to work with the Lamberts, Boulder County Parks & Open Space, and the Niwot community to create the final park design, obtain Special Use Approval, and construct the park with $250,000 from the Lamberts’ Reiman Foundation and over $347,000 from community donations. In-kind donations valued at over $250,000 from contractors and vendors allowed the million-dollar park to be completed in late 2016.  

The Niwot Children’s Park opened with wild success on October 2, 2016.

Keep Our Park Beautiful

The money to maintain our park comes solely from donations from our generous community members. Consider donating to help us offset the $12,000 annual costs of cleaning, supplies, watering, mowing and general annual upkeep. Please give what you can to keep our Park looking great year round.