Tulsa World // News Article Youth Services Program Coordinator Kelly Evans and summer camp participants cut the ribbon Friday for the new playground at The Center for Individuals With Physical Challenges. The project started two years ago with the idea for just an adaptive swing but developed and expanded at the area near Hillcrest Medical Center. Karlie Booth, Tulsa World. By Neal Franklin For kids with physical challenges, the fun stops after one ramp on many playgrounds. On a new playground in Tulsa, one ramp leads to another, connecting the entire site. Luke Knapp explored the playground’s wheelchair accessible teeter-totter and in-ground twirl-a-whirl. With the help of his mom, he said he might go onto the basket swing next. Luke is 12 years old and uses a motorized wheelchair. On Friday he played on a new accessible playground near 11th Street and Utica Avenue. “Most playgrounds I see have ladders and flying trapeze things where you hang off of them, which I can’t really do, but this playground I can do some of that other stuff,” Luke said. The Center for Individuals With Physical Challenges opened the adaptive playground Friday, marking the end of a two-year project. Children participating in the center’s summer camp helped cut the ribbon for the playground. The center aims to enhance the quality of life for people with physical challenges, Executive Director Wendi Fralick said. “This is an opportunity that our youth would not normally be able to have, and we have now brought that here to the center as an option for them,” Fralick said. During the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, people began socializing outdoors more often, Fralick said. “Well, that was great for kids without physical challenges,” Fralick said. “If you go to a playground, you go to a skate park — just these other areas that aren’t necessarily accessible.” Fralick said this is a chance for kids with physical challenges to enjoy playing on a playground with their friends, family and community. The center, located near Hillcrest Medical Center, had limited space for the playground and originally planned to build an accessible swing, said Kelli Collins, who designed the playground with the company Happy Playgrounds. The project developed over the course of two years, a longer time than most projects, to include more features, Collins said. “When you put together an inclusive playground, you want it to accommodate the children with special needs but also the normally developing child so you bring them together and everybody has fun and everybody is challenged,” Collins said. “That’s my goal with every playground I design.” After the ribbon cutting for the playground, Collins watched children using the playground she had designed. “This is the most fulfilling project I’ve ever done,” she said after watching a child in a wheelchair go up the ramp to an upper level of the playground. Scott Solomon, a counselor at the center’s summer camp, began pushing the basket swing for campers after the ribbon cutting. “This swing and the merry-go-round are the two big things I’ve seen people be on more than anything else,” Solomon said. “They’ve loved it.” Solomon, who uses a wheelchair, said that during the camp the children often start on the playground in the morning. At the camp, he said, campers have played sports like wheelchair basketball and have taken field trips. Luke is one of the campers at the center. His mother, Laura Knapp, said transferring Luke from his wheelchair to different playground equipment can be hard. “As far as playgrounds, there’s usually not much he can do, so it is great that this is available now,” Knapp said.
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AuthorI am a writer pursuing a career in Journalism who has covered topics in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the D.C. area and American University. Archives
April 2024
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