Submitted by Anne H. Oman
Reporter-at-Large
A $6,000 donation from Florida Public Utilities (FPU) will bring the accessible-to-all Pirate Playground closer to fruition, according to Fernandina resident Aaron Morgan, President of 8 Flags Playscapes, Inc. The FPU contribution will fund one of the play houses that will be incorporated into the design and will look similar to the houses in Fernandina’s historic downtown.
“This gives up momentum and brings us closer to our goal of $248,000,” said Mr. Morgan.
Although the group still needs another $80,000 or more to complete the new park, Mr. Morgan said that construction will start by the end of November, “as soon as the permits are issued.” The City of Fernandina has donated the land for the playground – three quarters of an acre behind the Atlantic Avenue Recreation Center. Clayton Buchanan of Buchanan Builders, Inc., the General Contractor for the project, has donated his services, values at $25,000, the largest single contribution to date. Other donations have come from businesses, civic associations, churches, charities, non-profits and individuals.
The park, scheduled to be completed next spring, will be called Pirate Playground, the result of a contest for elementary school students. Maddie Millar, a third grader at Emma Love Hardee Elementary, submitted the winning entry.
Aaron Morgan said he was motivated to work for the accessible playground when he saw a television documentary about an Ohio park designed to accommodate children with disabilities. He enjoyed taking his daughter, Cole, and his son, Russ, to playgrounds, but “I thought: what if they were children with disabilities? What would I do? I know a family who has a child with cerebral palsy, who can’t use the playground in Central Park because it has a mulch surface.”
Asked how many children would benefit from the new playground, Mr. Morgan said that there are some 200 children in the Nassau County school system classified as disabled, but “my answer is that every child will benefit. We’ll finally have a spot in the community where every child can play and not see the differences in others—just see a child. This will be the coolest playground in Fernandina, with neat play opportunities for everyone.”
Ted Kempton of Hardeman, Kempton and Associates, the Tampa landscape architecture and engineering firm that designed the playground, also stressed that the park would be “fun for children of all abilities. If it’s not fun, it’s not successful. We don’t want children to feel segregated. And we want it to fit into the local community, to be more meaningful than just a generic playground, something you just find in a catalogue and plop down.”
A shrimp boat, a fort that resembles Fort Clinch, some sea turtles, simulated waves, a channel marker and Victorian playhouses have been incorporated in the plan as a nod to local history.
Designing the playground was “an interactive process that took about a year,” according to Mr. Kempton, whose firm also designed the accessible Freedom Playground in McFarlane Park in Tampa.
“On one of our visits to Fernandina we had a hands-on workshop in a local school,” he said. “Children – including some with lesser abilities – drew pictures of what they wanted.”
The playground with have surfaces accessible to wheelchairs for children with mobility issues, Mr. Kempton said, and the paths will be loops rather than dead ends, “so a child with mobility issues can play tag or follow a path and not have to turn around. Circulation is important,” Mr. Kempton said.
There will also be clues for children with visual impairments to navigate the space, vivid, contrasting colors, signs with large letters, a ship’s bell children can ring, sound tubes so children can talk to others in a different part of the playground, and ways for children to connect with nature.
“Too many playgrounds are just metal and plastic,” said Mr. Kempton. “We like to incorporate tactile elements, especially sand and water, and natural elements such as twigs, leaves, flowers and seeds. The main challenge is that disabilities come in a huge spectrum. We can’t design for all. We can’t know what every issue will be. We strive for a happy medium, for different levels of activity. We have families where a child with disabilities will have a sibling with full abilities.”
Ingrid Harding, who moved to Fernandina Beach four years ago from New Jersey, has just such a family. Fifteen-year-old Pierce and ten-year-old Gretchen have full abilities, while twelve-year-old Sarah has Rett Syndrome, a severe form of autism that affects girls almost exclusively. A student at Fernandina Beach Middle School, Sarah is intelligent but cannot speak, use her hands effectively or walk unassisted. Outings to Central Park and other playgrounds have proved frustrating.
“All Sarah could do was watch,” said Ms. Harding, who founded and directs Girl Power 2 Cure, a Rett Syndrome advocacy and support group. “The new playground is all about bringing kids like Sarah out of the woodwork. It’s the next logical progress. We brought them into the schools. Parks are the last frontier, where children can be outside, feel the breeze, hear the birds, be with friends and family. It’s going to be an amazing place, where children can be around other kids of different abilities and just be human with each other, figure out how to adapt and play.”
For Sarah in particular, the new playground will afford “opportunities for joy,” added Ms. Harding.
“There will be a slide wide enough for a caregiver to ride down with her,” she said, “and a climbing wall with a wheelchair ramp. She can’t climb, but we can push her to the top and she can still be ‘king of the mountain.’”
Editor’s Note: Donations can be mailed to 8 Flags Playscapes,
PO Box 15158, Fernandina Beach, FL 32035
Anne H. Oman recently relocated to Fernandina Beach from Washington, D.C. Her articles have appeared in The Washington Post, The Washington Star, The Washington Times, Family Circle and other publications.
November 13, 2013 10:07 a.m.