Ashley Okland Star Playground Celebrates its First Year of All-Inclusive Play
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Monday, July 6, 2015
Variety’s Ashley Okland Star Playground (AOSP) celebrates its first anniversary at Des Moines’ popular Ewing Park. The playground is the first and only all-inclusive public park in Des Moines. The park was dedicated a year ago in partnership with Des Monies Parks and Recreation and the City of Des Moines. The AOSP honors slain Realtor and Variety rising star Ashley Okland.
The 9,335 square foot playground is located in Ewing Park at 5300 Indianola Road on Des Moines’ south side and features 50 different play elements designed to provide play for people of all ages and abilities. The AOSP addresses the developmental needs of special needs children by providing the opportunity for physical, cognitive, communicative, social/emotional and sensory development.
The AOSP was a $600,000 campaign and Variety’s first stand-alone project, led by Co-Chairs.
Variety has received positive feedback on the AOSP over the last year:
“Thank you to everyone who helped with this wonderful park. Our daughter who is handicapped and son absolutely LOVE it. It's great that we can go there and both kids can play and have a great time.”
“I took my special needs daughter to the playground yesterday. She had a fabulous time, and as we were leaving she said ‘this is the best place on earth!’”
“Looking through my daughter’s eyes as we approached the Ashley Okland Star Playground, things were blurry from the tears of joy I felt that finally there was a playground my child could access.”
Additional accolades for the AOSP include:
The Des Moines Register recently listed the ASOP as one of the Top 15 Places to Take Your Kids This Summer.
Play Across America placed it on their 15 Favorite Playgrounds of 2015.
A blog post from Realtor Mark Gavin also highlighted the AOSP.
Variety celebrates the success of the ASOP and is currently raising funds to bring an all-inclusive Variety Star Playground to Cedar Rapids. To support the Variety Star Playground in Cedar Rapids please visit varietyiowa.com/donate or call 515-243-4660.
Variety is dedicated to improving the lives of underprivileged, at-risk and special needs children throughout Iowa. Funding is provided to programs and initiatives the directly impact the well being of children in our community. For more information on how you can be a part of our work, please visit varietyiowa.com.
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