Author: Christa

On August 24, 2021, the playground at Walker Upper Elementary officially opened. Charlottesville City Schools students were there to cut the ribbon.

We were able to build a playground for Walker Upper Elementary because the Charlottesville community cared enough about our students to donate time, funding, and other resources. We’d like to recognize those who made this project possible. As you’re reading this list, remember that the project includes not only the playground but also the pathway that connects the lower parking lot that Walker shares with Crow Rec Center. The pathway and parking spaces in the lot were not up to current ADA regulations. In order to make the playground accessible to our community, we renovated the pathway and parking lot spaces, making it easier for more folks to access not just the new playground but also Crow Rec Center.

– Mrs. Grace Riggs gave an incredibly generous donation to the Walker playground after seeing a news story about the project. Mrs. Riggs, who passed away in 2019, donated to many Cville programs supporting children and young adults. Mrs. Riggs’ family hopes “her generous nature will be passed on.” Her daughter said, “My mom believed in helping those who were disadvantaged, especially children. She loved to read and had a passion for sharing that love.” It is with gratitude that we recognize Mrs. Riggs.

– Charlottesville Area Community Foundation supported the Walker playground though an Enriching Communities grant. They also provided guidance on applying for other community grants, which we won. Thank you, CACF, for the many ways you invest in Cville!

– The Walker playground is supported in part by Community Health, a UVA Health grant intended to promote active living and a healthy and connected community. We appreciate UVA Health helping us provide opportunities for students to move their bodies + play with friends.

– The Walker playground site designs and surveying were done by Timmons Group. In addition to donating part of their services, the Timmons reps were responsive and kind, a joy to work with. Thanks, Timmons, for contributing to our community!

– The Bama Works Fund provided one of the first grants to the Walker playground. We appreciate Bama Works’ belief in our project from the beginning and their support of Charlottesville kids.

– A big thanks to VMDO Architects for generously donating services to the Walker playground project. VMDO team members Shawn Mulligan, Kristen Hill, & Maria Bninksi provided guidance throughout and did an amazing job leading the live virtual sessions to engage community ideas.

– Shawn Mulligan also engaged volunteers from AIA Central Virginia to create initial designs for the playground site, providing inspiration about what we could build. Thank you, Shawn and AIA Central Virginia Emerging Professionals!

– It was important to us from the beginning that the Walker playground be accessible. SL Williamson donated – completely free! – their paving services to ensure community access to the playground – and the Crow Rec Center. Thank you, SL Williamson, for showing up for Cville kids. https://slwilliamson.com.

– Lions Clubs of Virginia and Charlottesville Lions gave a generous grant to the Walker playground. The Lions support numerous community projects, including playgrounds across VA. We appreciate their support for opportunities for kids to grow strong through play!

– The Walker playground project was supported in part by a grant from Crutchfield, a Central VA business supporting Central VA communities. Thank you, Crutchfield!

– Ting donated to the Walker playground project. Ting has given generously to support many local Cville initiatives, and we are grateful to be one of them!

– Digs, Inc. is a locally-owned business that supported the Walker playground. Digs has been in charge of renovating the ADA parking spaces & pathway that connects the playground to the lower parking lot Walker shares w/ Crow Rec Center, to bring them into compliance. Thanks, Digs!

– MTS Recreations, the vendor for the Walker playground equipment, was wonderful to work with. Our main MTS rep, Philip Smith, went above and beyond to help us plan for, order, and install the playground.

– We had a last-minute challenge with the Walker playground when the wrong part was sent for one of the equipment pieces. The scheduled ETA for correct part was October. We contacted Little Tikes, explained we needed the piece before school started, and they overnighted it to us!

– City of Charlottesville, Va and Charlottesville City Schools both contributed funding to build the playground and ADA renovations. As Walker Principal Adam Hastings says, “Walker is the first place in Charlottesville in which we ask over 700 of our neighbors to get along.” An investment in Walker students is one that will benefit Cville for many years to come, and we are grateful to have the partnership of our City and Cville City Schools!

– Many Charlottesville individuals made financial contributions to the Walker playground. Thank you to each one of you. Thank you for believing in our children. Thank you for believing in the power of play to support their wellbeing.

We’re ready to build a playground at Walker!!! With many thanks to Charlottesville City Schools and the City of Charlottesville for helping us meet our final fundraising challenge.

A few quotes from our online public survey and social media about how much a Walker playground means to our community:

• “I would just like to say thank you for getting a playground for Walker. At recess I would mostly just walk around, feeling bored.”
• “Play matters! Thanks for making a playground at Walker a reality!”
• “I wish you did this when I was there.”
• “This is a really important project. Thank you for doing it.”
• “My daughter is a rising 5th grader. The playground has made her SO excited about heading to Walker. It really is about SO much more than a playground. It is about social emotional health at a time when our children truly need that kind of support after the year we’ve had.”

This investment by our community in Walker is incredibly important. Walker principal Dr. Adam Hastings likes to say, “Walker is the first place in Cville where we ask 700 of our neighbors to get along.” The percentage of Walker students who are of Black, Hispanic, Asian, American Indian, Native Hawaiian race or ethnicity is higher than the CCS citywide average. Walker also has a higher percentage of students who are economically disadvantaged.

The Walker playground is one of the most cost-effective tools we could possibly have for supporting students’ health + academic achievement (research shows more physical activity results in better academic outcomes!), annually providing at least 75 hours of service per student. This project started because in 2018, students at Walker identified a playground as one of the top things they wanted to make their school better. We are so glad and grateful our community listened and made it happen.

Walker Upper Elementary students have chosen the winning playground design! We are excited to be working with playground vendor MTS Recreations to bring this fun play equipment to Walker.

The winning design was one of two finalists created based on feedback from students/other community members through an online survey and two live sessions.

439 people took the online survey in May and June:
– 37% were Walker 6th graders
– 34% 5th graders
– 13% parents
– 4% other community members

One of the survey questions had students rank their favorite play activities. They are, in order:
Swing
Run
Climb
Walk
Bounce
Spin
Hang
Sit
Ride
Jump
Balance
Slide
Perch

We used the live feedback sessions, which were led by amazing volunteers from VMDO, to refine answers from the survey. For example, sliding is low on the list of favorite activities. However, when we asked students if they wanted no slides or one slide, they chose one slide.

Next steps: We are working with Timmons Group to create the final site survey and CAD (computer-aided design) that is required to apply for a building permit from Cville Neighborhood Development Services. Thank you to Timmons for donating part of their services!

Once we submit our application to NDS and the City Engineer, they have 60 days to review it. They then give us time to make any changes that they have identified. The city then has 45 days for a second review and deciding whether to issue the permit to build.

Finally, our building timeline will further depend on the school schedule at that time, ie whether students are in school and whether we can build when they are. We are confident that the playground will be built by the end of summer 2021, and it may be done sooner.

An issue that lengthened our timeline is that the ADA pathway from the lower parking lot that Walker shares with Crow Pool & Rec Center is out of code. A Playground for Walker agreed to fund and oversee its renovation to ensure that the playground is accessible to all.

Our agreeing to update the ADA pathway for the City put our project over 6,000 sq ft. The City told us that meant we are now responsible for designing and implementing a stormwater management system, despite the fact that if we were to build only the playground, we would not have to create and implement stormwater management, and despite the fact that the footprint of the updated ADA pathway will not be substantially different than what is already there. The stormwater management system is relatively expensive, adding about 20% onto our costs.

We asked if we could submit applications to build the two projects separately, the first as the ADA pathway and the second as the playground, which would mean we would not need to implement a stormwater management system. We spent several meetings talking with City folks about this possibility but the request was denied. The City Engineer acknowledged that if we had built the ADA pathway without telling the City that we were going to build a playground, as well, then we would not have been asked to implement a stormwater management system.

We were next told by the City Engineer that his office could help us design the stormwater management system, reducing the $15k-20k price tag. While we tried to follow the instructions required to secure that assistance from the City Engineeer, we were ultimately unsuccessful.

With financial contributions from the community, we have been able to move forward with sufficient funding to cover the additional project costs. However, if there are unexpected costs or volunteer labor falls through, we will have to do more fundraising.

City funding has been identified that could be used for the stormwater management, since it will benefit the City. If you would like to see the City route that funding to the playground, please consider emailing:
dawsonj@charlottesville.gov
browndt@charlottesville.gov
blairjc@charlottesville.gov

Thank you again to the Charlottesville community, including Cville Parks & Rec and Neighborhood Development Services, for your support in making a Walker playground a reality!