After decades of love and use by the Upper Arlington community, Wickliffe Progressive Elementary School’s castle playground has reached the end of its useful lifespan, with maintenance becoming increasingly challenging and costly. So, in the same community spirit that drove the creation of the castle playground, a group of school and community volunteers launched the Wickliffe Woods Project a year ago with an ambitious charge — to design and fundraise for a new outdoor playspace for Wickliffe. The vision is to create an iconic, world-class inclusive playground rooted in elements of nature-based play, STEM and environmental learning for Wickliffe students and the larger Upper Arlington community.
This spring and summer, the new playground will begin taking shape. New swings and spinners are being installed, thanks to initial fundraising efforts by the Wickliffe Woods team, and following the end of the school year, the wooden castle structure will be decommissioned and removed. Prior to that, there will be a community celebration for the castle playground and its place in the history of Wickliffe and the Upper Arlington community. Please look for a community invitation with more details in the spring at www.uaschools.org and in the next issue of UAiNSIGHT.
This summer, a new play structure will be installed, thanks to funding from the Upper Arlington Schools, that will help bring the Wickliffe Woods vision closer to reality. This will include a traditional post and platform play structure, an accessible spinner, monkey bars and poured-in-place surfacing.
Just as the Wickliffe community came together to build the castle structure more than three decades ago, Wickliffe will continue that tradition with a community build process for the play structure that will be guided by Midstates Playground Equipment, the manufacturer’s representative.
With the investment from the district in a new play structure, the Wickliffe Woods Project will continue fundraising for the final phase — which will include Earthscape play structures and help bring the unique personality of the Wickliffe community to the playground.
If you are interested in learning more about the Wickliffe Woods project or in making a financial contribution, please visit www.wickliffeplayground.com or email [email protected].