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Alexander’s new playground invites more kids to be included in recess fun, and organizers say they aren’t stopping there
By: Theo Peck-Suzuki | Report for America
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ALBANY, Ohio (WOUB/Report for America) — School has yet to begin, but the new playground at Alexander Elementary School has already won the approval of its most important constituents: children.
Kids swarmed the freshly-installed structures before Thursday’s ribbon-cutting ceremony even began, including a handful of children in wheelchairs who could enjoy the equipment with their friends for the first time.
The old playground’s mulch surface is gone, replaced with smooth, springy, wheelchair-friendly rubber. There’s a large multilevel rope tower, a “ship” that rocks, and a multi-tiered set of monkey bars, some of which can be reached at ground level (another plus for kids in wheelchairs).
“We’ve been working on this for so long, and now we see all of these kids … playing on this and using it and liking it, and, tears, you know? Just lots of tears of joy,” Lisa Wigal said.
Wigal said her daughter Emma used to come home upset because she couldn’t play on the old equipment. Emma uses a wheelchair, which meant she was stuck on the blacktop during recess, watching her friends from afar.
“At first, I was like, ‘Hm, I’ll try that,’” Emma recalled, “but then I was like, ‘Oh, I can’t.’ And then I felt sad.”
Another Alexander student, Chloe Wright, had a similar experience. She uses a wheelchair and walker to move around, both of which would get stuck in the playground mulch. Like Emma, Chloe had to stay on the blacktop, where she would sometimes get hit by balls thrown by other kids.
“One of the things that she would come home and say is, ‘I hate school. I don’t wanna go to school,’” her mother, Becca Cullison, said.
Three years later, those efforts have paid off.
Korpi said the need for more inclusive spaces is often lost on the broader public.
“Before I had my son, I was really oblivious to what people with disabilities go through, to what people who use wheelchairs go through,” Korpi said. “Kind of like in ‘The Matrix,’ take the red pill or blue pill, and once you take the pill, you see the truth. It’s like, ‘Okay, well, this is actually important, and it’s on me now.’”
Play areas in particular, she said, can often be overlooked.
“The school playground is this hidden point of exclusion for children, because nobody’s making those accessible. Like, these public parks are getting accessibility upgrades, but the schools are just status quo,” Korpi said.
“I would love to see funding at the state or federal level to upgrade school playgrounds,” she said. “Universal design is definitely the new norm now, and I think schools need to rise to that.”
Without ample government funding, Korpi and Wigal relied on donations to put the new playground together.
“In the beginning, I was worried that the community would not take to this project, but it’s been the complete opposite,” Wigal said. “They’ve had our backs.”
The project also sparked interest among other children in the district.
“I had a mom tell me the other day, her son saw a presentation about it, and he ran and got his allowance money and wanted to give his two dollars to the playground,” Korpi said. “Since then, they’ve been driving around, and every time he sees a playground, he’s like, ‘Oh, I wonder if that’s accessible, if that has mulch, if that has rubber, if that has steps.’”
“That, you know, even if there’s no playground, is worth its weight in gold,” she added.
“Unfortunately, I want to feel relief, but there’s a lot more work to do,” she said.
Nevertheless, for Emma, the school year is looking up.
“I’m really happy. And I finally get to play with my friends,” she said.