INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The Indianapolis Colts organization was at it again on Community Tuesday.

Some Indianapolis Public School students have a new playground, all thanks to the Colts.

Until Tuesday, students at Butler Lab School 60 on North Pennsylvania Street didn’t have a great place to play. Assistant Principal Heidi Wilson said, “Our playground has been put together piecemeal over the years.”

Ande Sadtler, director of community impact for the Colts, explained how its playground program works. “We find a playground that either is falling apart of doesn’t have the newest equipment or just really needs some love. So, we work really hard to identify the need, and then we come in and build the playground.”

The Colts organization reached out to the elementary school and surprised students this week with the exciting news. The assistant principal said, “Once they (students) found out, it (excitement) was through the roof. We actually created a viewing room on the third floor where they have little mini binoculars so they can look out and check out the progress.”

More than 150 volunteers including staff, partners, players and cheerleaders helped build students a playground from the ground up, working with the experts at Sinclair Recreation. Sadtler said, “We’re going to have swings, we’re going to have slides, we’re going to have a climbing wall, so a little bit of everything.”

It was the Colts’ 17th annual playground build.

Wilson said, “I think we’re so lucky to have the Colts organization choose us to receive this playground. The kids are going to like it.”

INDIANAPOLIS — The end of Sunday’s Broncos-Colts game featured the full spectrum of emotions: confusion, heartbreak, reprieve, frustration and, ultimately, elation for the home team.

The Colts snagged a 29-28 victory after kicker Spencer Shrader converted a 45-yard field goal with no time remaining, but only after badly missing a 60-yard attempt that was negated by a Denver personal foul moments earlier.

After coach Shane Steichen confoundingly took a conservative approach to his team’s final possession — the Colts never attempted a pass after crossing midfield, and they let the clock run down while at the Denver 40-yard line — Indianapolis lined up for the long field goal try. It would have easily been the longest of Shrader’s short career, but the second-year player wasn’t close, the kick sailing wide right and coming up well short.

But Broncos outside linebacker Dondrea Tillman was called for a leverage penalty on the play when he appeared to use his left arm to leap over Colts guard Dalton Tucker. The penalty advanced the ball 15 yards and gave the Colts an untimed final play. Shrader regrouped and hit the winner from 45 yards, dealing a gut punch to the Broncos (1-1).

“He was trying to make a play to help this team win a game,” Denver linebacker Nik Bonitto said.

Added Tillman: “I was just going for the ball … just trying to make a play.”

Referee Craig Wrolstad told a pool reporter after the game: “As a defender, you’re not allowed to place your hand on an opponent or a teammate and push off to propel yourself into the air to block a kick. In this case, No. 92 came across the line to the right guard, and he put his hands on the right guard and pushed off him to elevate himself in the air in order to try to block the kick. You’re not allowed to do that.”

For Shrader, it was an emotional final sequence. He said he was confident before the first attempt but explained that he felt pressure from his right side from Broncos cornerback Pat Surtain, which disrupted his follow-through.

“I felt that disappointment right after the kick,” said Shrader, who had never attempted a field goal beyond 50 yards in the NFL. “I kind of got hit after the play, so there was a lot of chaos going on. I saw the flag was thrown and then it was like, ‘Reset your mentality. You’re getting another opportunity. Whatever happened in the past, you’ve just got to flush it.’”

Shrader’s second kick split the uprights with plenty of distance. He was immediately engulfed by his teammates, and the celebration was on.

The Colts, now 2-0 for the first time since 2009, survived after Steichen’s questionable offensive playcalling in the final minutes. They converted a third-and-6 with 1:50 remaining, with quarterback Daniel Jones hitting Alec Pierce for a 7-yard gain to the Denver 43. From there, the Colts ran the ball three times with Jonathan Taylor, including up the middle on third-and-7 from the 40. Taylor, who rushed for 165 yards total, was stuffed on the play, losing 2 yards. That made for an even longer attempt by Shrader.

After a second-down run, Steichen let the clock elapse to 17 seconds before calling a timeout, making it clear the Colts had no intention of trying to achieve a first down.

“We were in field goal range there,” Steichen said. “Felt good about it. And then on that third down, obviously, we went backwards there on that one. But, yeah, that’s football sometimes. Obviously, we got the penalty that helped us out and found a way to win.”

Steichen never elaborated on why he felt comfortable attempting such a long kick. But he did clarify that he decided to let the clock elapse because he was hoping to avoid having to kick off to the Broncos after a potential field goal.

It all made for some uneasy moments, even on the Indianapolis sideline.

“I just thought we would throw it at least one time,” Colts tight end Mo Alie-Cox said.

“You don’t want to take a short sack, either. We talk about these situations all the time. But the football gods were with us today.”

ESPN’s Jeff Legwold contributed to this report.

Nearly 50 years after it was dedicated as the St. Peter Claver Center, the once-thriving Near Northside building is getting a new lease on life.

Community members, including Trinity Church pastor Kim McCrackin and Marion County Recorder Faith Kimbrough, gathered outside the storied event space at 3110 Sutherland Ave. on a gray afternoon Sept. 13 to publicly commemorate the church’s plans to remodel and reopen the community center as the Trinity Youth and Family Services Center.

From beneath the drumbeat of heavy rain on umbrellas, McCrackin reminisced about the place where she would come to sing, dance and be among friends as a teenager.

“When you came here, baby, you dressed up,” she said.

The St. Peter Claver Center began in 1978 as a meeting space for the Knights and Ladies of St. Peter Claver, the nation’s oldest predominantly Black fraternal organization. For nearly 20 years, the space hosted meetings, dances, fashion shows, banquets, even speaking engagements from the likes Maya Angelou. But after the roughly 25,000-square-foot venue changed hands a few times in the 1990s, including its most recent stint as the Omega Events Center from 1998 to the early 2000s, the building fell into disrepair.

McCrackin, an Indy native who has been a pastor for about 25 years, said she spent nearly three months in 2014 tracking down the Omega Center’s owners in the hopes of purchasing it.

She then established the Indianapolis branch of the predominantly Black, Florida-based Trinity Youth and Family Services, holding church services out of a small auxiliary building on the center’s property while steadily making repairs to the main structure.

There remains much work to be done. McCrackin said Trinity had to essentially gut the building after buying it. Graffiti pocks the exterior brick walls and there is substantial damage to the roof. A sign out front reading “St. Peter Claver Center” has been nearly bent in half. The pastor estimates that in order to completely renovate the building, Trinity will need to raise around $1.5 million.

The ambitious project already has buy-in from Trinity congregant and lifelong Indy resident Brigitte Winters, who remembers coming to the St. Peter Claver Center in her 20s with her friends for dances where beloved local DJ Thomas “Sparkle Soxx” Griffin would spin records deep into the night.

“It was so fly back in the day,” Winters said.

Longtime Indy resident Bessie Manning would frequent the center with other kids from her church, often waiting in a line of cars to get dropped off. She and her husband, George, mourned the loss of a community staple when the backgammon nights and fashion shows stopped, leading to years of neglect.

“I hate that it went downhill,” Bessie said. “If they can get it fixed up, it’ll be real nice.”

With the money Trinity hopes to receive from community donations and grants, McCrackin plans to revive the center with various functions including a food pantry, after-school programs, a playground, a fellowship area and an event space to be rented for different community celebrations, weddings and funerals. If possible, she intends to rent buses to transport food to lower-income residents who can’t come to the Trinity Center.

“We’re gonna go to them,” McCrackin said. “Somebody’s got to treat somebody right at some point.”

After the afternoon ceremony, during which Kimbrough presented McCrackin with the physical deed to the Sutherland Avenue property, the driving rain dried to a slow drip and the 20-some people present began forming a line to fill plates and clamshell boxes with chicken, ribs, goat, macaroni and cheese, salad and green beans.

Among the group was McCrackin’s mother, Doris, an Indy resident of 70 years who used to attend the Claver Center for dances, fashion shows and bingo nights. Doris hopes that under her daughter’s guidance, the community staple that once served them both can do the same for a new generation.

“There’s just so much going on, we just need to get people on the right track,” she said. “If you show them love, maybe you can bring them in.”

Contact dining reporter Bradley Hohulin at bhohulin@indystar.com. You can follow him on Twitter/X @BradleyHohulin and stay up to date with Indy dining news by signing up for the Indylicious newsletter.