On August 26, 2006, the Boys and Girls Club of Detroit Lakes is going to build the first handicap accessible playground for our community. The purpose of the playspace is to provide a place of play for all children, shapes, sizes, colors, e.g. Our current playground is un safe and serves children ages 2-5. We are going to build a playground that serves ages 5-12 so the whole community can enjoy a safe place to play. We are eliminating the risk of crossing a highway to play at a park, which is actually a school yard. The mission of the playground is to help the developing community on the northern side of town. Many of the families that live on this end of the community are lower income and can not afford some of the greater pleasures such as community centers, roller rinks, swimming pools, and other areas of recreation that come at a cost. A playspace will offer many children creative, imaginative and fundamental play. Play is important to us becuase we believe children do not get enough of that anymore.
Our Mission:

Our Mission is to inspire and enable all youth to become positive role models and citizens, through leadership, learning and sportsmanship.

Proposed Site

The site the playground will be built is where the current equipment stands at the Boys and Girls Club. Currently the site is a little narrower and has only four components, a sandbox, a climber, baby swings, and slide. All the equipment is metal and has the risk of injury. The new site will have wheel chair accessible surfacing, engineered wood fiber, three slides, fun house walk, rock wall, two challenging climbers, a u bounce, monkey bars and will be ADA accessible and IPEMA certified. The area has many natural oak trees that give a great source of shade and protection from the sun and lots of grassy area to run on for other games or room for a growing playground later on. We have already installed new swings that are seperate from where the new equipment will stand to use the space of projecting the area.