Plans for a new playground could get more concrete next Tuesday. That is when a playground design firm will collaborate with local children to create a visual for the facility.

Design Day is packed with interaction, organizers say. Coordinator Wende Aldridge said the daylong event includes brainstorming sessions at area elementary schools, a citizen review of the initial design and a public presentation.

Aldridge said she and fellow members of the 2007-08 Leadership Hopkinsville class are determined to build a playground that serves a large part of the community. The leadership students call their initiative Project Playground: Kid-Designed, Community-Built.

Design Day will jumpstart the project, says fundraising coordinator Holly Hampton.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re 7 years old or 75 years old, everyone can join this event,” Hampton said.

John Dean, a designer from the New York-based firm Leathers and Associates, will lead most Design Day activities. Dean will spend the morning asking students at Millbrooke Elementary School what the playground should look like.

Should it have a climbing wall? How about a castle? What should the playground’s theme be?

Members of Leadership Hopkinsville will conduct similar interviews at other elementary schools.

Dean will then incorporate the best ideas in a sketch of the preliminary drawing while Millbrooke students watch. The new playground will fill about 10,000 square feet at the North Drive Complex.

Hampton said the design possibilities are exciting. In 2004, Leathers and Associates took on a similar project in Clarksville, Tenn., that resulted in a structure with twisty tube slides, trampoline bridges and a play helicopter.

Later in the afternoon, Dean’s design will be reviewed by a panel of adults and children. The same panel will oversee the project until its completion. The playground is scheduled to be built the week of April 30 through May 4.

The design will also be on display Tuesday night at a community meeting at the Recreation Department on Thomas Street. Dean will make a presentation at 7 p.m. followed by a question-and-answer session.

The event is being sponsored by Coldwell Banker MetroNet Realtors and Southern Printing of Hopkinsville.

Hampton said organizers hope a big crowd will spark the large-scale giving needed for such a project. Leadership Hopkinsville’s fundraising goal is $175,000 in money and in-kind gifts.

Leadership Hopkinsville will hold other fundraisers and send out mailing. Checks can be made out to the Local Development Corporation — Project Playground. Still, Hampton says, Design Day is the project’s best chance to rally community support.

Leadership Hopkinsville also seeks partnership with local government. Last week, the group appeared before the Hopkinsville City Council to request the city approve the playground for inclusion in the renovation of the North Drive Recreation Complex.

The group also asked the city to use its $65,000 grant for crumb rubber on the project. The proposal was approved and forwarded for a council vote.

Aldridge said the leadership class settled on the project after it won a vote for the idea with the potential to benefit the most citizens.

Hampton said the new playground will compliment the soccer tournaments to be held at the North Drive Recreation Complex.

“Once parents see how big and nice it is, they will bring their children back,” Hampton said.

Source:
KY New Era, January 3, 2008
By Joe Parrino, New Era Staff Writer