Visitors to Gamble Park should keep their eyes open for a new friend calling the park home — Slinky the Serpent of Stone.
Slinky’s name properly describes the colorful snake made from stones painted by local residents of all ages.
The serpent made of stones calls one particular area of the park home. That spot is on the left side of the walking trail just passed the bridge near the playground.
“I had seen a post of a rock snake a while back and thought it looked so fun. I just never went anywhere with it. Recently, a friend messaged me a picture of the very one I saw and said, ‘you should do this.’ I took that as a sign and ran with it,” said Rachel Sargent, Slinky’s creator.
Sargent, a Walker County native, is the person behind Adventure Play Learn, a Facebook page
“I moved away for quite a while and when I came back with a young child, I realized how hard it was to find things for kids to do around here,” she said. “I started exploring this place where I grew up and venturing out a couple hours in any direction and found fun spots to take my daughter.
“I realized that there were people who knew nothing about some of the places,” Sargent added. “I decided this area needed somewhere to go to get ideas for fun places, sensory play and events(local and some non-local), so Adventure Play Learn was born. A friend of mine even suggested we branch off of the sensory play and host monthly park days, which we now do for free to give the kids in the community a place to have sensory play fun.”
When planning for Slinky, Sargent said she contacted Jasper Parks & Recreation Director Peter Cosmiano about the idea.
“I thought it was a great idea,” Cosmiano said. “Any time someone in our community has a great idea, we are happy to be able to help where we can.”
The city paid for the sign that can now be seen beside Slinky, telling a little bit about him.
“We welcomed Slinky to Gamble Park on July 20. My hope is that Slinky will continue to grow and make the park more colorful from people in the community(or people visiting) showing their own special creativity. I also love the thought of families searching for those special rocks then painting them together and adding to this fun community project,” Sargent said.
Slinky’s reception at the park has been mostly warm and welcoming, Sargent said. There was one encounter with some teenagers that saw Slinky end up in the creek.
“So far, the response has been great, and the Slinky Facebook page is growing day by day. We’ve had several people add to him already and a lot of people are excited about it saying that they love this idea and love it for the community,” she said. “I will say, we’ve already had someone(probably some teenagers) take all the rocks and throw them into the creek. Thankfully, someone noticed them, picked them up, and put them back in a line.”
For more information on the Slinky the Serpent of Stone community art project, visit its Facebook page, Slinky Rock.
