West Park Playground Open for Play!
We would like to thank the community for their support of the West Park Play Yard project. We are excited to announce that our sod is now ready to be played on and the play yard is now open to the public! We thank you for your patience while we allowed nature to “take root” so we could remove some fencing. The play yard is open on school days beginning at 3:45pm, and from dawn to dusk on weekends and vacation days.
This project’s success was an example of how to leverage partnerships, grants and community donations to serve multiple interests beyond the West Park Elementary community. Special care was taken to consider the use of the play yard for multiple populations, including people of all abilities and ages. In addition to the standard play yard equipment, funds supported the extension of a sidewalk to improve pedestrian access, a grassy playing field, musical instruments and a natural landscape. The natural elements of the play yard and the “council ring” were designed with the school’s Expeditionary Learning curriculum in mind, and we anticipate adding learning gardens in the spring that will be used for classroom education. The play yard also features artwork by current West Park students and we plan to continue adding artwork each year. We hope you will join us for a grand opening celebration in May, when we have completed the finishing touches.
We would like to express our appreciation to the members of the West Park Wellness Team, who had the courage to dream and coordinate this project on behalf of the community, including Christina Reiff, Sarah Mudge, Valerie Hilshorst, Blythe Dee, Taylor Trelka, Taylor Rapke, Melissa Kirr, Lisa Morton and Mary Bender. For the many contributors to this project’s success please see our ad in this week’s paper. See you on the playground!