Today we’d like to introduce you to Tosha Jackson.
Hi Tosha , we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I have been “involved” for as long as I can remember. Despite not playing sports, I was in numerous organizations and extra curricular activities throughout high school. During my college years, the Dean of Student Services said I was “the most involved student” in the college’s 75-year history – serving on the Student Senate, in Phi Theta Kappa honor society, Phi Mu Epsilon sorority, even founding a pep club to support athletics a decade before a cheerleading squad was formed.
That strong desire to be involved continued after college when I became a graphic designer at a small marketing agency that specialized in working with small businesses, municipalities, chambers and downtown Main Street organizations. From there, I dove into the entrepreneurial world starting my own business and continuing to work with small businesses and community organizations. That eventually led to me an opportunity to become the Executive Director of the Excelsior Springs Chamber of Commerce where I helped grow tourism and economic vitality over the course of 3 years. In 2019, I was offered a role at the City of Lawson (population 2500) – overseeing the marketing and events for the small, but growing, community that I also happen to call home.
One of my first assignments was to step in to manage the Lawson Park Board, which was a volunteer-led group that hosted the Lawson Picnic and a few other events in the park each year. The group had had a couple of individuals that gave 1000% for several years, but had burned themselves out and decided to step back from their volunteer roles, so my first task was assembling a new group of volunteers that would share the same passion and energy as their predecessors. One by one, we built our team adding individuals with varying backgrounds and talents, but the common desire to serve our community.
In January 2020, we set our sights on building a new, all-inclusive playground in the historic Lawson City Park. At the time, it would have been the first all-inclusive playground in the northland which was not only very exciting for our community, but also for the region. When Covid hit, we knew that fundraising would have to wait, so we put it on hold. Despite Covid, we hosted a few, limited events including the Lawson Picnic which had been held every year since 1902, except one year during wartime.
In 2021, Lawson would celebrate our sesquicentennial, so the Park Board formed a committee to plan a year-long celebration dubbed the “Lawson 150.” Part of the plan was to introduce summer programming for the first time, kicking off with Art and Storytime in the Park, along with Music at the Campground, After Hours at the City Pool and Movies in the Park. In order to fund this year-long campaign, we developed a “one-time-ask” approach to sponsorships and were able to raise $21,350 to cover the cost of our programs, the Lawson Picnic and other Lawson 150 special events.
We also started fundraising for the new playground which had an estimated cost of around $500,000. We partnered with the Lawson Community Foundation, Beehive Masonic Lodge and Lawson Rotary Club on fundraising efforts.
The summer programs proved to be so successful that we decided to keep them going, even after the 150 celebration concluded. In the second year, we added Science in the Park and Move-It Mondays. In 2023, Family Night and Ladies Night at Lawson Lake were added to encourage kayak rentals, fishing, use of the walking trail and disc golf course at the lake complex. We also hosted our first annual Summer Spraydown. This was the first year that we started recording statistics of attendance at our events. We had a total of 536 people attend 19 different events in 2023.
In 2024, another new program was added called Women in the Wild, which was a 4-part series teaching women the various aspects of enjoying the outdoors safely and independently. We also hosted Games at the Campground for both campers and residents to enjoy. We saw our highest attendance at one of our Wednesday morning programs (Art/Storytime/Science) with over 90 kids attending Science in the Park to make slime. Let’s just say making slime with that many kids was chaotic and messy in the most awesome way! We had a total of 566 people attend 22 different events in 2024.
Despite so much success with our programs and events, we started to realize that raising $500K for our playground was not achievable in a reasonable amount of time. In winter 2024-25, we went back to the drawing board and came up with a thoughtfully-designed playground that would serve our community for decades with a more reasonable budget of $200,000. We pushed harder than ever to reach our fundraising goal!
In 2025, we made our biggest expansion yet – increasing our programming hours by 200%! We added Pickleball Open Play Sundays and Golden Cardinals Senior Activity Programming to provide our older adult population with recreational and educational gatherings. We celebrated National Parks and Recreation Month with Parks & Rec Pop-Ups and hosted Learn to Kayak clinics. We concluded the summer with our Summer Spraydown event which drew over 400 people! We had an estimated total attendance of 804 people at 35 different events in summer 2025.
Continuing our tremendous growth, we expanded our programming into the fall months with new events like Maker Monday and Preschool/Library Pop-Ups. Perhaps most exciting of all is that we were able to complete our fundraising and have our brand new, all-inclusive playground built and opened just in time for our annual Christmas in the Park event!
Through my involvement in the Missouri Parks and Recreation Association, I hear lots of praise for the amount of programming and events that we host in Lawson. It’s reassuring to know that we are making a positive impact in our small town!
My career path has evolved over the last two decades, but one thing remains: my desire to serve and to be involved in my community. I would encourage everyone to do the same, even if it’s in a small way, because together WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Being in a public role can be challenging. There is always going to be someone that finds something to complain about or criticize – often while hiding behind a keyboard on social media. As long as you are doing your best and doing what’s right for your community, the noise shouldn’t matter. I would encourage people to give more grace to those in public and volunteer roles. Better yet, try getting involved or volunteering to help before criticizing something you don’t know all sides of.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am proud to call Lawson home. It’s a great community with lots of people willing to serve in various organizations that all contribute to the quality of life we enjoy here.
What does success mean to you?
Success is knowing that you tried your hardest, planned out everything you could and came out on the other side.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.lawsonmo.gov
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawsonparkboard
