COEUR d'ALENE - New name, new logo and one expanded mission.

Say hello to the Panhandle Parks Foundation, the nonprofit organization helping build an approximately $3 million state-of-the-art baseball stadium at Cherry Hill Park.

"It fit," said Kim Stearns, executive officer for the foundation, on the baseball plan meshing with the group's mission. "Everyone on that board has a soft spot for kids ... And it was a way for us to get involved in a good project for the community."

While the foundation contracted Jim Faucher recently at $2,500 per month for six months to facilitate fundraising with an end goal of building the ball yard, the foundation's goals stretch beyond baseball, beyond Coeur d'Alene even.

The Panhandle Parks Foundation used to be the Coeur d'Alene Parks Foundation but changed its name in the summer to match the change in the scope of its work: It wants to develop parks and recreation opportunities across North Idaho, not just Coeur d'Alene.

"We're so lucky here," Stearns said of the Lake City's 30 developed parks, and miles of hiking and biking trails. "We want to create that model in other cities."

When the foundation was named after Coeur d'Alene, it helped facilitate land swaps that became the Kroc Center, and donated land to what's now Landings Park.

It was founded in 2003, helped raise $32,000 for The Fallen Heroes Plaza and was the administrative help that led to Coeur d'Alene's first dog park being built.

Successes it wants to share.

"There are so many things we want to do," Stearns said.

Stearns visited The Press editorial room Thursday to share the organization's missions and goals. Its new name was thrust into the spotlight by helping with the highly publicized baseball field plan that could play home to American Legion Baseball, not to mention North Idaho College if the junior college brings its program back.

But the group is looking across the area for expanded park and recreation opportunities. It has started talks with Spirit Lake about possibly helping create pedestrian trails from there to Spokane and is exploring other opportunities around the city of Ponderay, Rathdrum Mountain, and inside the proposed Hayden Canyon development in Hayden.

But when people hear about Panhandle, their reaction, Stearns said, is: "What's that?"

Slowly but surely their name is getting out to other areas. The reaction as the foundation reaches out has been "100 percent positive," Stearns said.

She even changed the logo from an outline of Idaho, to a sleek-looking shield, in which shines a lake and sunset.

But the foundation needs to grow. The foundation is looking for four members to join its 8-member board with the goal of supporting parks, open space and recreation. It's also looking for land donations. It currently owns 16.5 acres on Fernan Hill. The benefit of donating land is donors can leave a tax-deductible legacy, and the foundation can use land grants to develop the specific site.

In the case of the baseball field, the 501(c)3 foundation is holding the money when donations come in, thereby keeping them tax deductible.

While that project may grab the most headlines, the foundation wants to be about much more, all across North Idaho.

"The foundation is only as good as the partnerships we help develop," she said.

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