After raising $400,000, the Sacajawea Elementary School PTA finally unveiled their new inclusive playground this week, making sure all students can play together.
Izzy Goldsmith is a fourth-grade student at Sacajawea with cerebral palsy. With the previous playground’s pea gravel, the wheels on her wheelchair could not get to the playground to be with her peers.
After Meadowlark Elementary School installed an inclusive playground in 2021, Izzy’s mother Sarah Goldsmith, president of the Sacajawea PTA, knew they had to bring that to their school.
Goldsmith says, “Wheels on a wheelchair or a walker cannot get through, so she would have to crawl through the pea gravel. And then none of the equipment was accessible for somebody with a disability."
Goldsmith and the PTA have been working toward this moment since November 2022, fundraising $400,000.
About $121,000 was raised by Sacajawea students, and $206,000 was raised by independent donors.
A plaque to thank those donors will also be included on the playground. Additional funds were raised through grants.
Goldsmith says, “Getting to see my daughter be able to play on the playground for the very first time in her wheelchair, on the surfacing on the equipment, we're just really thankful for everyone who put in the work and donated."
The main new features of the playground are rubber surfacing and ramps to get up onto the play structure. The playground also added features all students seem to love, like a merry-go-round and a rocking boat. There are also plans to install swings later next year.
While the money couldn’t pay for the entire surface area of the playground to be rubber-poured ground, they added ADA-approved wood chips to surrounding areas of the playground. Once time has packed those wood chips down, it will allow easier access for wheelchairs and walkers.
Goldsmith says most of the money went toward the partial rubber surfacing, as a fully wood-chipped ground wouldn’t be ideal.
She says, “If you have a kiddo or a family member or a friend who has a wheelchair or walker, you'll quickly see it's not that easy to get through. So even though something meets ADA, it doesn't necessarily mean it's the most inclusive, so that's why we chose the surfacing for a portion of the playground”.
The new playground will not only benefit Izzy and her peers, but will be an inclusive place for children at Sacajawea for years to come.
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