Next fall, Pleasant Grove will open a 25-acre park at the city’s center. This week, the city announced it will be officially known as the Cook Family Park as the family donated $5 million for its construction.

The estimated completion of the entire park is 2025, but the splash pad and the playground is expected to be up and running by the fall of 2024. The groundbreaking for Cook Family Park will be held Aug. 2, at 10 a.m. and any children attending will get the chance to be a part of starting the construction process.

It is open to the public and will be children-centered — the Cooks will have 100 small shovels on hand for children to be part of the ground breaking. Pleasant Grove City Mayor Guy Fugal said every child will get a chance to break ground, no matter how many rounds of dirt turning are needed.

The park will be located at 800 North and 600 West in Pleasant Grove. For years, the property has been vacant and residents wondered what would take its place. Over the last two years the City Council worked with the Cooks and a landscape architect to decide on a concept, design, location and finally last week, a name.

“Being a part of a major project in Pleasant Grove is exciting for us and an honor and privilege to be a part of because of the vision of the city leaders in setting aside these acres for good public use. And we’re really just thrilled and excited to be a part of it,” said Greg Cook, founder of DoTerra and the Cook Center for Human Connection.

The city purchased the property 12 years ago, and their vision included expanding the storm drain, cemetery and adding a park, but with the $5 million donation, the park and splash pad will be larger than they originally hoped for, Fugal said. Without the Cook family, he said they would have simply put in some soccer fields right now and worked on a small, average park, calling the donation “a total game changer.”

The 10,000-square-foot splash pad will be the centerpiece of the park with an interactive viking ship, representing the viking mascot of Pleasant Grove High School.

According to Scott Darrington, city administrator, the park will include a playground, splash pad, pump track, recreational multi-use fields, a skate park, basketball courts and futsal. The remaining acreage will be used to expand the city’s cemetery and 10 acres will be left undeveloped for future use.

“The playground, too, is going to be one of the larger playground structures you’ll ever see in a park. … Because of the Cook’s donation it’s going to be a regional draw. There’s going to be people coming from outside of Pleasant Grove City because of how neat and how good this is going to be,” Darrington said.

The Cook family donation will go fully toward the park and splash pad while the city is funding the other amenities. However, Cook said the family does not want the amount of money to be the focus.

“We’re not looking for that recognition, what we really were focused on is that the donation would provide the amenities that the community is really wanting to have that may not otherwise be available,” Cook said.

Funding the rest of the park, which the city took out a $12 million bond for, will necessitate a property tax increase. A tax increase proposal will be discussed at the city’s Aug. 1 city council meeting.

Greg and Julie Cook have lived in Pleasant Grove for almost 25 years, raising all of their children while contributing to the community through nonprofits and other charitable givings.

“Our family sees this as an opportunity to serve in the community and to give back, and there’s so many people in our community giving back, we wanted to make sure that we were doing our part,” Gregory Cook said. “We love Pleasant Grove, it’s been such a wonderful city and community to raise our family in. The schools are amazing. The city is just so kind and giving and generous, and we have been blessed.”

Cook said they funded this park because their family values aligned with the city’s vision. He said philanthropy is a core value of their family and when they give back through projects they ensure it will have “real, meaningful impact.”

“This park, I couldn’t think of anything that we could do in our city within the community that will have a bigger impact,” Cook said. “We see this park as a really important and strategic effort in promoting unity within the community and promoting good health — physically and emotionally.”

Darrington said the city wants to facilitate connection between the residents and individual families, and they are doing that through this park. Both Fugal and Cook said they envision the park to be a place where parents can bring their children in the morning and throughout the day to connect with one another. Updates on the park progress will be posted on the city’s Facebook page.

“We really love that whole value of connection,” Cook said.

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