PORT ANGELES — Jefferson Elementary School’s developmentally disabled preschool students will get a new playground appropriate to their needs, thanks to a $20,000 grant from The Seattle Foundation.
The forest-themed play structure will feature crawling tubes shaped like logs, a climbing structure that resembles a large root structure and other features that resemble the forest so familiar to Peninsula children.
“Five years ago, when the program moved to Jefferson Elementary, there was no secure outdoor area for young students in the preschool program to safely play and interact,” said Margi Ahlgren, teacher in the Intensive Early Intervention Program.
The school’s outdoor areas were designed for older children, and cutbacks in the school budgets meant there was no money to create appropriate and secure areas the youngest children need to work on physical, communication and social skills, Ahlgren said.
“These skills are so crucial to their development,” she said.
The Intensive Early Intervention Program is one of two Port Angeles special-education preschools that work with children with behavioral, communication or other delays.
Ahlgren worked closely with Dream Playground Board President Steven Charno to get the funding to complete the playground.
Seattle Foundation
It was through Ahlgren and Charno’s efforts that the partnership between the school district and the foundation became a reality and the avenue for the grant application was provided.
Charno announced Wednesday they had received the grant from the Benjamin N. Phillips Memorial Fund of the Seattle Foundation to support construction of the playground.
The proposed playground would be the only one of its kind on the Olympic Peninsula, Charno said.
A local contractor has donated work to resurface and fence a 120-foot-by-40-foot area, complete with an asphalt tricycle track.
Donated materials
Other donations allowed for the construction of a storage shed, the purchase of rubberized playground surfacing, a tire swing, a seesaw, a sand and water table, and a sandbox.
In addition, district maintenance staff have done extensive in-kind work and paid for several hundred dollars’ worth of lumber, bolts, nails and other supplies to help make the property safe for preschool play.
The Dream Playground Foundation is a Washington not-for-profit corporation with all-volunteer staffing and a 14-member board of directors, which was incorporated in 2003.
The foundation maintains the Port Angeles Dream Playground, a 12,000-square-foot community facility, and the adjacent picnic shelter at Erickson Park in Port Angeles.
Fundraising efforts are continuing for the project.
For more information, contact Ahlgren at mahlgren@portangelesschools or 360-565-1921.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
