Kids to design Moses Lake playground
MOSES LAKE — Larson Heights Elementary teacher Tara Childs has a homework project to do. She is working to have a park built with help from children.
Childs is the founder of Passion for Playgrounds, a non-profit group dedicated to building and operating a park in north Moses Lake.
She took her idea to John Poling of Grant County Housing Authority and he suggested she submit a proposal to the housing authority board. The project is approved and an architect is on his way to brainstorm ideas.
A meeting is set for March 10 from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. in the Hardin Room at the ATEC building at Big Bend Community College to plan fund-raising activities and Design Day, a day of designing the park.
The architect from Leathers and Associates in New York is scheduled to meet with a group of children on Design Day, March 20, at 7 p.m. in the North Elementary School gymnasium to discuss designs.
"My passion behind that is that I think kids need to feel ownership and realize they can make things happen and that they can be part of something big," Childs said.
"I wanted it to be more than just a park. I wanted it to be a park that's dreamed up by kids, where the designer will work with the kids to design a park and the whole community will help build it," Childs said.
Children are also thinking of names for different parts of the 20,000 square-foot park, which may include a music area, an amphitheater or a boat area, Childs said.
"It's a mystery to me until the architect works with the kids," she added.
"I have a passion for lots of things, I like to do arts with kids and drama and the hope is that the park would have a small outside amphitheater," Childs said.
The park does have a name, Doolittle Dream Park.
Larson Heights and North elementary schools hold a "Penny War" from Feb. 26 through March 2 in order to raise funds for the architect to travel to the area.
Childs is in need of a surveyor for the 11 plots of land, located at Patton Boulevard and Doolittle.
She said the cost estimate is between $300,000 and $400,000 and she is applying for grants and hoping the community can pitch in.
Donations can be made through the Columbia Basin Foundation. For more information contact Tara Childs at 509-771-0074.