As part of our Neighborhood Parks Campaign, in 2019 Cincinnati Parks Foundation received a $150,000 grant from the PNC Foundation for Cincinnati Parks to replace a 20-year old playground at Inwood Park. This grant was awarded as part of the 15th anniversary celebration of PNC Grow Up Great®, a bilingual, $500 million, multi-year initiative which helps prepare children for success in school and life.
The new playground will benefit an underserved neighborhood and is designed to be universally accessible. It will be located at the upper part of the park on Wellington Place, adjacent to the recently constructed shelter, parking lot, and loop walkway. In addition to being designed for accessibility, it will also to serve children of all ages.
Last summer, we invited our friends from Cincinnati Parks, PNC Bank, YMCA, Rising Stars Academy, the Mt. Auburn Community Development Corporation, and local children from the surrounding community to participate in a playground design meeting. The children described what their dream playground would look like through a variety of activities including drawing playground ideas, voting on playground elements and participating in open discussion. Cincinnati Parks used the children’s ideas for inspiration in the playground’s final design.
Features include two “tot”-sized houses with elements for small children, musical instruments, colorful ground-level panels, and a variety of swing types including a fully accessible “ADA” swing. Other features include a sliding hill, two climbing structures enabling children to get birds-eye views from 12′ feet above the playground, a “drag strip” for foot races, and “gumdrop” balancing pods. Also included is a spinner that accommodates mobility devices and seats for kids and, a first for the Park Board, a zip line. The safety surfaces are a combination of artificial play turf and engineered wood fibers.
The Cincinnati Parks Foundation sincerely thanks the PNC Foundation for making this playground a reality and we look forward to its installment.
