Andrew Kukuruda Park, Crafton Heights: 1649 Stratmore Street
The trees lining the corner of Elmont and Stratmore Streets are tall, strong, and expansive, and sitting on a bench at the playground where I can easily stare at the branches is a calming experience. Connecting the Earth below to the skies above, these silent sentinels watch over all who visit Andrew Joseph Kukuruda Park.
Chances are, you didn’t know there was a neighborhood playground right off of Crafton Boulevard. And unless you have deep, multi-generational roots in Crafton Heights, you probably have never heard of Andy Kukuruda.
When Andy was a kid growing up in Crafton Heights, there wasn’t a playground and basketball court terraced along this steep street. Instead, there was the Schaeffer Elementary School, which he attended in the 1950s. I imagine that, like many kids of his age, during that age, he spent a fair amount of time running around outside, playing games, building forts and riding bikes, and visiting a nearby store for candy and comics.
After graduating from Langley High School in 1968, he enlisted in the US Marines. On March 14, 1969, during the height of the Vietnam War, Andy Kukuruda died from a gunshot wound to the head while dragging a fellow Marine to safety. He was 19 years old.
Had Andy returned home, he’d be 75 years old this year. It’s hard to imagine what a full, long life would have been like for him. When you’re young, it always seems like there’s so much time and so many options. Options Andy never got to choose. That may be why friends and family in the neighborhood petitioned the city to give the park his name: Because playgrounds are a place for the young and young at heart, where the world and our lives should have unlimited potential.
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