There’s a new pavilion in Mount Washington's Stanbery Park, named for the Cincinnati teen who died in 2018 before emergency personnel arrived.
Cincinnati Parks recently showcased the new Kyle Plush Pavilion on its Facebook page, saying that the structure “represents hope and community and will be a place of gathering, celebration and remembrance.”
The pavilion has security, lighting and sound, Ann Brown, treasurer and secretary for the Stanbery Park Advisory Council, says in a Facebook video.
According to family members featured in the video, Plush spent considerable time in Stanbery Park, sailing foil boats in the creek, hunting fossils and walking dogs on the trails. He attended the park’s nature camp as a young child for many years, family members say.
“He loved this park, and so having his name up here on this beautiful building is like a legacy to the kind of a person that he was,” Plush’s grandmother Judy Zehren says.
Plush died on April 10, 2018, after being trapped by a folding seat in the third row of his family’s minivan. Using Siri, a voice-activated virtual assistant on his phone, Plush had twice called the Cincinnati Emergency Communications Center (911), but responders were unable to locate the van before he died from asphyxiation. Ron Plush found his son six hours later.
In a 2019 lawsuit against the city of Cincinnati, Kyle's parents, Ron and Jill Plush, contended, among other things, that the city did not prioritize the teenager’s 911 calls, which some allege may be a pattern. The case was settled earlier this month, with the city agreeing to significant long-term emergency response improvements.
Watch Cincinnati Parks' Facebook video about Kyle Plush Pavilion below.
