Quick Take
Tricia Wiltshire, founder of LEO’s Haven at Chanticleer County Park, says children with disabilities are often unable to access traditional playgrounds, denying them a birthright of childhood: the ability to play with their friends and families. But Santa Cruz County is a community capable of rallying around a cause. She thinks that should be to create play spaces where everyone can belong – and she’s working to make that happen in Capitola, with Treasure Cove at Jade Street Park.
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Ten years ago, I made a promise to my children, Lauren, Evelyn and Oliver, that we would have an inclusive, accessible playground in our community.
At the time we were sitting in the parking lot of Tatum’s Garden in Salinas, having just attended its grand opening. My son, Oliver, uses a wheelchair. As a family, we found we could not access most playgrounds because the wood chips and sand were inaccessible. If we got to a play structure, he couldn’t play on it.
But that day, for the first time, our family was able to play together like any other family. We zoomed up the ramps of the play structure, sat in specially designed swings, and chased each other across the rubberized surfacing. That experience was life-changing for our family because it set us on the course to create Santa Cruz County’s first fully inclusive playground, LEO’s Haven at Chanticleer Park.
I am now determined to make this happen again, this time in Capitola at Treasure Cove at Jade Street Park.
I know it won’t be easy, but building LEO’s Haven only happened because of extensive grassroots efforts by our community. The Chanticleer Park Neighbors headed by Mariah Roberts were crucial. The county had planned to develop the park using state redevelopment funds, but in 2011, due to the recession, the funding disappeared overnight, leaving the neighbors to rally to save the only walkable green space in the neighborhood from becoming a housing development.
Community efforts gave Chanticleer Park a temporary community garden and a much-used dog park. Folks would gather together under the old oak trees and dream about creating the park “one day.”
Then, I showed up at one of their meetings in 2014 with an audacious idea. What if we worked together to create a space for the community that truly included everyone? What if we created an inclusive playground in the park as well as all the other features the community wanted?
It was a big idea. It was a massive undertaking. But never doubt the power of a small group of dedicated individuals to change society, as Margaret Mead said so well.
To their everlasting credit, the Chanticleer Park Neighbors adapted to include an inclusive playground in their plans for the park. The playground practically named itself: LEO’s Haven. LEO was an acronym of my children, Lauren, Evelyn and Oliver, and the neighbors chose “Haven” to indicate a safe space where every child could belong.
It took seven years of dedicated volunteer efforts, but Chanticleer Park would turn out to be the largest public-private partnership success story that had ever happened in Santa Cruz County.
While the parks department worked on securing governmental funding, dedicated community members volunteered their time to raise millions in private funding. Service groups like the Rotary, Lions and Kiwanis joined in and held fundraisers. Children made speeches to the county board of supervisors and held cookie sales. Businesses, private organizations and individuals in the community all came together, allowing me to keep that promise I made to my children.
For children, the playground is their creative classroom. Unfortunately, children with disabilities are routinely left out, as the majority of traditional, Americans With Disabilities Act-compliant playgrounds are often physically inaccessible to them. These playgrounds are surrounded by sand or wood chips – both of which are impossible to navigate for wheelchairs and walkers. When children with disabilities can reach the structure, they often find only one or two pieces of equipment available to them.
Universally accessible playgrounds, designed beyond ADA requirements, allow users of all ages, abilities, backgrounds and perspectives to explore the power of play while building mental, physical and social skills. LEO’s Haven’s overwhelming popularity upon opening in January 2020 has inspired Capitola to work to build Treasure Cove.
To make this next chapter of our inclusive play dreams a reality, the City of Capitola has partnered with County Park Friends, whose executive director is Mariah Roberts. I am the Treasure Cove campaign manager, and we have been joined by community lead Dan Haifley, former executive director of O’Neill Sea Odyssey.
I like to say we are getting the band back together and going on tour again.
The plan is ambitious: We need to raise $1 million in private funding by the end of January 2025. Meanwhile, the City of Capitola has allocated $475,000 and is working to obtain the balance of the playground’s projected $1.82 million cost.
Since launching the campaign in August, County Park Friends has raised close to $400,000 in gifts and pledges, including a grant from the Monterey Peninsula Foundation, host of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, which will match every dollar received up to $250,000.
We have a lot of work ahead of us, but as a mom of a child with disabilities, it’s not uncommon to face significant challenges like this funding search.
Furthermore, I know I’m not alone in my community. One in every 10 children and one in every five people has a disability. We don’t have to search far within our web of friends and families to know of someone or be someone who knows what it’s like to feel excluded from public spaces due to poor design issues.
I, and others like me, know we can solve this. You simply build a better playground, even if it costs more.
As a mother, it was heartbreaking to see my child sit on the sidelines as he watched other children race across a park to the playground. Inclusive playgrounds solve this problem, not only for Oliver but also for other children and caregivers who need better-designed spaces to make them feel included in our community.
Tricia Wiltshire is a former educator and county parks commissioner and serves as project manager for Treasure Cove at Jade Street Park at County Park Friends. If you’d like to be involved as a volunteer or to help financially support this playground, please feel free to contact Tricia at tricia@countyparkfriends.org.