The Green Park Board of Aldermen tentatively discussed updating and upgrading the playground at Blake C. Snyder Memorial Park at its Oct. 21 meeting.

“One of the things we have been working on is the issue with us being child-friendly,” Mayor Tim Thuston said. “As I’ve said before, there used to be a waiting list for our senior bingo, and hardly anybody at the (children’s) Christmas party – now it’s the opposite. You can see the demographics are flipping. It’s getting much younger, a lot of kids, so what we’re trying to do is provide them with a park within Green Park. Blake Snyder Park – it’s got a playground, but it’s embarrassing. It would be nice if we had more of an up-to-date playground.”

To help with the playground update, Thuston contacted Unlimited Play, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that helps to plan, design and build fully accessible playgrounds that allow all children – regardless of their abilities – to play together. Natalie Mackay, founder and executive director of Unlimited Play, attended the recent board meeting to present work the organization has done with the county and explain why an inclusive playground would benefit Green Park and the South County community as a whole. 

“I speak most often to service clubs, and at the end, guarantee, somebody in the back corner will raise their hand and ask if this is just for kids with disabilities. What I think they’re really trying to ask me is, ‘will it be challenging for each and every child at the level they’re developing at?’ When you leave this meeting tonight, I want you to know: absolutely. It would defeat the purpose if we designed only for kids with disabilities. You see graduating complexity, different levels of challenge,” Mackay said.

Features of past projects include surfacing and ramping that allows individuals with mobility impairments to go throughout the entire area, fencing to keep children – particularly those with autism – from running into streets and parking lots, active motion and social inclusion. 

“I wanted to make sure my son had friends, and that takes playing together to do that. We use lots of different pieces of equipment, allow(ing) children with and without disabilities to play side by side,” Mackay said. 

The main issue in moving forward with this project is funding. Mackay explained that though city budgets often allow for an ADA-compliant playground to be built, there is about a 40% gap in funding between ADA and “truly inclusive.”

“Once we have a beautiful design for your project, we break all the pieces into sponsorship opportunities. Most service clubs will pick a piece of equipment from that catalog and hold all kinds of fundraisers. We’ve had major corporations to high school fundraisers and everywhere in between,” Mackay said.

She also mentioned a grant from the Missouri Municipal League that could ease some of the financial burden.

“I’ve already had a conversation with two of the board members on the municipal league about partnering with the county and the city. Because you guys can apply for funding, but it’s in a county park, so would they even be open to that opportunity? Both members of the municipal league came back and said, ‘We really like the partnership. Yes, we see no reason why you would not be fully funded.’ That’s two of the board, but two strong members of the board,” Mackay said.

Applications for the grant recently closed, though will open again in late summer, giving the board more time to flesh out a solid plan.

“I think this is a real opportunity for us to at least explore doing something better for the kids,” Thuston said. “I think it would be well worth our effort to pursue. For all of South County, I think it would be really nice … The fundraising issue is a challenge (but) there are a lot of possibilities, and this isn’t just a dream, it’s a possibility we can give to our kids.”