Design Day for Warwick Playground Dreams held at Warwick schools

WARWICK — When it comes to designing a playground you need an expert. And who is more of an expert on designing playgrounds than a child?
On Friday, April 7, students from the Warwick Valley School District were invited to participate in "Design Day" activities and share their input for the proposed new playground at Stanley-Deming Park.
The plan to upgrade the playground was initiated by Warwick Playground Dreams, a non-profit organization comprised of parents and community members.
A playground for allThey have set out to accomplish this mission through fund-raising efforts, community partnerships and use of available resources.
The playground will be designed to ensure that children of all abilities will have access to playground components that will allow them to play together in a safe, truly inclusive environment.
The idea is to foster children's creative spirit and encourage the free play that is necessary for both physical and cognitive development.
The end result is intended to be a community space that Warwick can be proud of and all families can enjoy for years to come.
Children's ideasDianne Connolly, elementary associate principal for Park Avenue and Sanfordville Elementary Schools, said that all elementary students had completed a sketch of their dream playground and these sketches were provided to Play by Design, a playground design firm, to incorporate the children's ideas into the final plans.
At both Park Ave and Sanfordville, students were invited to bring their dream playground sketches to life by creating detailed drawings/plans, paintings, 3D models, Legos or other building blocks, computer rendering, or descriptive essays.
These were later on display at the Community Design Reveal, open to the public that Friday evening.
"The goal of Design Day," Connolly said, "was for the students to meet with the designers to have one more opportunity for them to share their ideas before the final plans are completed."
- Roger Gavan