The city of Santa Maria Recreation and Parks Department, Kiwanis Club of Santa Maria, and the People for Leisure and Youth Inc. planned to open an inclusive playground on June 17 at Preisker Park. The playground allows children of all abilities to enjoy the equipment, making it the first disability-friendly park of its kind in the city.
“All of our playgrounds are technically accessible: They meet the federal guidelines,” Recreation and Parks Director Alex Posada said. “But they’re not inclusive.”
Posada explained that while accessibility guidelines allow disabled folks to access the grounds where play structures are located, they don’t necessarily allow them to use the play equipment itself.
Completed after four years in the making, the project was funded by the Kiwanis Club and the city’s Recreation and Parks Department, as well as dozens of individual community members and in-kind donations from businesses.
The new park uses “a series of ramps, support railing, tactile stimulators, and other special features to provide a meaningful play experience” to all, an initial funding request written by former Kiwanis Club President Ryan Maxwell stated.
Posada emphasized that the benefits of inclusivity extend beyond the children.
“It’s also for the disabled parent who can get on the playground and play with their kids,” he said. “It’s all ramp-driven, so you don’t need to transfer out of a chair. You can actually take your chair up onto the play equipment to help your child on the slide, or push your kid on the swing.”
Marjorie Hord, a former Kiwanis Club board member and the club’s current vice president-elect, came up with the initial idea for an inclusive park.
“We even have a swing for children with disabilities, which is a big deal,” Hord said. “You have to have something that they can be secure in, and we have one of those.”
Hord said she was inspired by an experience she had while at a local park with her grandson, who was 5 years old at the time with a broken leg. He couldn’t get on the playground equipment, she said, so he started to cry.
“But his leg was going to get better, and he would be able to go back on the playground equipment. Then another mother came along with her child who had disabilities. He was never going to get up on that slide,” Hord recalled. “So I thought, ‘I want to do an all-inclusive park.’”
Maxwell, the Kiwanis Club president at the time, asked the board of directors where they wanted to see Kiwanis funds going next. Hord pitched her idea of creating Santa Maria’s first inclusive playground.
“Ryan took it and ran,” Hord said.
From there, Kiwanis joined forces with city officials to secure the necessary funding and find all the right equipment.
“Alex Posada helped with the city to get this playground put in place, and without him I don’t think we could have done it,” Hord said. “He was at a recreation and parks meeting in the state, and one of the play companies that make equipment had brought their equipment to sell it to different parks and cities. Alex got a deal on it … so that saved us quite a bit of money. It definitely was a collaborative project.”
Former Kiwanis President Maxwell said he hopes the park will inspire future inclusive endeavors in the city.
“Regardless of their abilities, every family should have the opportunity to play together,” Maxwell said. “I’m really hoping that this can be an example of how we can build parks in the future, that would incorporate all abilities, for children and families to play on.”
This article appears in Jun 18-25, 2020.