Accessible playground nearing funding goal is for all, not only special needs

An inclusive playground for one of Wisconsin's most adaptive counties is nearing its funding goal and a build date in Lake Geneva's Veteran's Park. Lake Geneva is in Walworth County: Home to the state's only school for the deaf as well as one of only two Wis. counties with a special needs school. It's also home for Dusti Ocampo and her daughter Kameron, the visionaries behind Never Say Never Playland (NSN).

In 2015, Ocampo approached the city of Lake Geneva with an idea that would help the resort city comply with the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) when it comes to inclusive – or adaptive – recreation space. Four years earlier, the federal government made access to play areas a civil right under the ADA, however paying for the modifications or adaptive equipment is a challenge for cash-tight municipalities. Ocampo's plan combines private sponsorship on city-donated land. The Board of Park Commissioners provided 13,000 square feet in Veteran's Park and the city kicked in a generous $15,000 contribution… the rest of the nearly $520,000 price tag has been a three-year pursuit for the nonprofit Never Say Never, Inc.

Inclusive designs have been evolving in the decades since federal accessibility guidelines in the 1990s. A bigger push this decade by parents and advocates like Dusti has amounted to an inclusive playground movement and impressive designs that allow able-bodied kids to play right along side kids who have physical challenges. NSN's design has a woodlands theme and state-of-the-art ADA components that aren't only compliant and therapeutic, they're fun. “A child's job is to play,” Ocampo echoes a quote from the NSN video (link). “Here kids of all abilities can play, learn to socialize, and interact with their environment.”

NSN's innovative approach to raising capital has been two-fold. Costs are reduced by having it built by volunteers. Permanent sponsors donate to put their name or business on the site as $1,000 to $25,000 sponsors, or sponsor various durable components, from a $50 fence picket to core equipment costing thousands. Just under $390,000 remains to be raised before construction in 2019.

Tax-deductible PayPal donations (credit card, debit, or checking account) are accepted at the NSN website www.neversayneverplayland.com. The GoFundMe page for NSN can be found at bit.ly/NSNPlayland