The Marquette Playgrounds for All Committee welcomes you to the dream…
History of the Beloved Kids Cove
Kids Cove located in Mattson Park was an outstanding community endeavor completed in the summer of 1996. A community came out with hammers in hand to lend their talents in building a playground for and by them. Since its conception, it has been a fixture for the Marquette community and has been a great gathering place for families.
Why do we need a new Kids Cove?
With safety, inclusion, and fun being top priorities, the Marquette Playgrounds for All Committee, the Community Foundation of Marquette County, and the City of Marquette invite the community to the creation of a new playground made of child-friendly material and equipment. The playground’s surface will minimize injuries that result from falls. The equipment will allow easier sight of vision for grandparents, parents, and caregivers. It will allow children with various abilities to play and learn together. Kids Cove will enhance the park, bring visitors from throughout Upper Michigan, and will be good for the economy of the city of Marquette.
Now, after thousands of children have climbed its towers and slid down its slides, the existing playground at Mattson Park is outdated and filled with equipment that needs to be replaced because:
The original is 25 years old, outdated, and filled with equipment that needs to be replaced.
Core structural components are showing their age and a failure with one of these would require the whole structure to be removed.
Replacing the structure with materials that meet today’s standards is needed in the best interest of our community’s health and safety.
In 2003, the EPA banned the future use of the type of treated lumber used in the construction.
A DREAM to Build a New ALL-INCLUSIVE Kids Cove Playground
The dream began with Joani Reynolds Miller. Joani contracted polio as a child. Joani, a retired preschool teacher, had watched children with physical, emotional, and sensory challenges be mere observers at our traditional playgrounds. Joani had a vision of making life for children with disabilities more inclusive in our community. Joani’s positive spirit and love of life were an inspiration for all who knew her.
The details of the future Kids Cove plan have included participatory community planning and input. The Marquette Playgrounds for All Committee, the Community Foundation of Marquette County, and the City of Marquette have set high standards and goals from which specific ideas have grown. The playground will be built so it is simple to use, understandable, and safe for all users. Kids Cove will include an ALL-INCLUSIVE design. A playground that will work for the widest spectrum of users and meets the concepts of ALL-INCLUSIVE design.
Why all-inclusive? Because we ALL learn through play.
Play is our first introduction to the world around us. We all learn through play. Play helps us understand the world. Play helps us become healthy emotionally and physically. Children playing are stimulating their developing brains, strengthening motor skills, building awareness of others, learning language skills, creative thinking, building self-esteem, and problem-solving. ALL-INCLUSIVE play provides children with special needs and typically developing children the opportunity to experience the world through multiple lenses.
Our children with special needs (over 1600 in Marquette County) have unique challenges with their disabilities frequently making them observers at the playgrounds in our area.
What makes this playground different?
The playground’s surface will not only minimize injuries, but allow accessibility for all.
The equipment will allow a better line of vision for grandparents, parents, and caregivers.
The equipment will allow access for all.
Fenced perimeter with only one entrance and exit.
It will allow children with various abilities to play and learn together.
This playground will build togetherness, understanding, and respect that children of all abilities would not achieve if separated. Playing together exposes differences while demonstrating the similarities that they all share. It should be emphasized that the Kids Cove Playground is also meant for the typically developing child. These children will find the playground exciting and challenging. In other words, this playground is not just for children with disabilities, but is for ALL kids.
Eight Play Zones within Kids Cove Playground
Our Play Zones is a collection of carefully chosen equipment around a play theme for children of all abilities to play together, laugh together and grow healthy... together.
The pictures are conceptual models of the eight zones, representing possible images of each zone. They are not dimensionally accurate and some variations will occur during the final design and construction process.
Toddler Zone
Quiet Zone
Proprioceptive Zone
Spinning Zone
Swing Zone
Climbing Zone
Music/Free Play Zone
Hill Zone
Kids Cove, a Dream with Goals
Project goals and expected long-term benefits to the community include:
Providing a needed play/exercise opportunity for ALL children
Providing a barrier-free, recreational opportunity for children that adult caretakers can navigate easily.
Enhancing the artistic and educational opportunities at Mattson Park
Providing an additional attraction to the already popular Mattson Park for the community and creating a destination attraction for visitors.
The Path to the Playground Design
The planning for the playground included public forums with ideas from the entire community which included children in its initial process. Based on a robust community input period an all-inclusive playground concept design was created under the leadership of the contracted design team of Sanders and Czapski Associates in conjunction with Progressive AE specializing in Landscape Architecture, and Let Kids Play specializing in Inclusive Playgrounds. All playable features were chosen based on the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) standards for safety and the Americans with Disability Act (ADA) standards for accessibility, as well as the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) standards for all playground equipment. The unique equipment was chosen based on the following ideals set forth by Mara Kaplan at Let Kids Play.
The resulting playground will delight children and families of all abilities.
How will we fund the playground?
The fundraising goal for the playground is $1.7M. A project of this magnitude WILL take the entire community, one dollar at a time to realize the treasure we will call our own.
The City of Marquette successfully received a Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund Grant in the amount of $300,000. Planning and construction will commence in 2022 and must be completed by the summer of 2024.
A leading company in the building of inclusive playgrounds will be contracted to complete the project. We ask our community to come forward, join arms with the Marquette Playgrounds for All Committee and Community Foundation of Marquette County and begin the exciting steps in creating OUR Kids Cove which will reflect OUR community and become the TREASURE that our children deserve.
The goal of completion of fundraising initiatives: ASAP.
The Marquette Playground for All Committee will be linking arms with the entire community to reach the financial goals the reality of this dream requires. YOUR donation, no matter how large or small will mean the world to our children and future generations.
The Playground for All Committee and City of Marquette have partnered with the Community Foundation of Marquette County to raise funds for this project. The Community Foundation of Marquette County, a Michigan 501(c)3 Non-Profit Corporation, is the fiscal agent for this project (Federal Tax ID 38-2826563). All donations are tax-deductible for the full amount less the value of any goods and/or services received.
You can make a donation now or explore options moving forward:
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Play gives children a chance to practice what they are learning.
-Mr Rogers