January 30 was an important day for many in Valparaiso--most notably, for the kids. It was Design Day in Valpo, which brought out the creativity in the students at multiple schools in the city.
Design Day was a huge deal, and many people were involved in making the day great for the kids. Parents, teachers, and other community members volunteered their time to go into the schools around the city to talk to the students and get their ideas on what would make the most amazing park. Students from kindergarten through 5th grade created designs that they put down on paper and then they shared even more ideas with the volunteers that came to each class on Design Day. Volunteer Facilitators headed the Q and A sessions with the kids, while volunteer scribes wrote down all the ideas that the kids had. Here is what some of the volunteers had to say about the day:
Rob Thorgren, ValPLAYso Facilitator at Cooks Corners said, "Valpo's parks are one of this city's greatest assets. ValPLAYso was designed by the city's children 20 years ago, and it's definitely time for an upgrade. Not only will this park have newer, recycled materials, but it will be more accessible and more visible. Who better to design it than the children who will be using it?"
"This is actually a unique experience for me because my dad was the mayor of Valparaiso 20 years ago when the first ValPLAYso was built, so I was involved in that process. I was involved in that process as a young person, and now I have a child at this school and I'm involved in it as an adult and community member. I'm excited that I was asked to help. I think the kids are excited about it. I think with the weather being what it is, they really want to be thinking about spring and playgrounds, so I think they'll have a lot of great ideas. I know that Northview kids are full of good ideas," Deena Lawley, Northview Facilitator said. "I think if the park is truly designed by children and with children in mind, it's going to be the most populated park in the city. The kids will be excited that it was designed with their ideas. I remember being excited that the ideas were put forth by kids for the first ValPLAYso, and I think the new generation of kids will probably have a lot of the same ideas, which will be kind of funny."
"I grew up in Valparaiso and so it's nice to be a part of the community," Amy Johnson, a Parent Volunteer at Hayes Leonard said.
"I find it interesting that Valpo would use the community and the children's ideas; that's something special about our community," Lisa Sut, another Parent Volunteer at Central Elementary said.
Planning for Design Day and the entire ValPLAYso build has been extensive. A Design Day Committee was formed to take on the project and multiple committees were formed to cover all aspects of the endeavor like a Construction Committee, Children's Committee, Publicity Committee, and more.
"My kids were all given the opportunity, on paper, to put down their wish list or their design for their own dream playground. It was fun to see a lot of their ideas. A lot of them had unique ideas but at the same time a lot of them had the same things. And it's been fun because my own children were little when they designed the first ValPLAYso, so it's been exciting to see it come full circle now. Like with Amy, I grew up in Valpo, so we both saw the first one come together, and now to see the cycle repeating, it's very cool," Mary Ann Colter, a teacher at Hayes Leonard said. "We saw lots of slides, lots of things to climb with. One of [the ideas] had a rock wall to climb onto. Lots of dreamy ideas, like they'd like to incorporate a water park. There were many, many ideas that included water."
There were so many creative ideas that came out of the day. The scribes filled their notebooks with the children's thoughts. Some of the ideas that came to fruition were underground slides, a disco ball with speakers, hot tubs and pools, and a splash pad. Leave it to children to dream big!
Erin Utesch, Cooks Corners Principal said, "It's exciting to hear our students' creativity. It has been a great day for them and we're happy to be a part of the park."
Loren Hershberger, Northview Principal said, "I think it's wonderful because the kids have a chance to have ownership in the park. Anything we can do to get kids active and out there playing is a good thing. With them having ownership and helping design it, they'll be more likely to go out and play on it. In 15-20 years, they'll be taking their kids perhaps. That's what makes a community really great. For the kids to be responding to this and be able to be a part of it, they're pretty pumped about it."
"We have five Central parents here, and we're so lucky to have them here to help today," Beth Krutz, Principal at Central Elementary said.
"I wanted to be a part of it, and my children to be a part of it. We're new to Valparaiso and it's something to get us acquainted and really be a part of something for the community," Rachel Spadavecchia, a Parent Volunteer at Hayes Leonard said. "We for sure plan to be part of the build in October. Since this progress keeps the kids going up until the park is built, I plan, with my kids, to be a part of each step. Being a part of actually putting it together is obviously something we want to be included in - like today."
After all of the ideas were collected, a group of students and chaperones hopped on a bus and headed over to Flint Lake Elementary School. The group of students were chosen to represent all of the schools that participated in the big day. There ALL of the ideas that the students had come up with verbally and in their own drawings were given to a designer from Leathers and Associates. Leathers and Associates is helping the community make the new ValPLAYso a reality. The designer on duty, Jane Holman took all of the ideas from the students, and using them as inspiration, she proceeded to create a brand new design for ValPLAYso.
"All the kids here...shared great ideas from their classmates and as the designs and drawings start to come together, it's going to be really fun to see it all being built," Holman said. "It's a great asset to us that Valparaiso did this twenty years ago, so it's not their first rodeo. What's really phenomenal is that the committee is made up of both people who were involved last time as well as a new generation of young parents and children contributing...In particular here, this is going to be an 'inclusive' playground. That means a number of things. It means the park will be accessible to all children, and it also means that we're designing it with spaces that encourage kids to play together as well. Lastly, it means we're also designing the park so that guardians--parents, grandmas, whoever takes the kids to the park--will be able to comfortably and easily get around it as well."
"It was perfect today. All the volunteers were trained and organized and awesome. Everything went smoothly." Monica Decker, co-chair for the Design Day Committee said. "The kids had a great time and offered so many great ideas, and they loved having the chance to share them with everyone here knowing that their ideas were going to be part of the final design."
Click here to see photos from Design Day!
Be sure to come out and be part of the Design Day Party at Thomas Jefferson Elementary School on January 30 at 6:30pm! For more information on getting involved in this awesome project, visit the ValPLAYso Park Facebook page! You can also call the Valpo Parks Foundation at 219-462-5144 or visit their website!
Photos and quotes provided by: Stefan Barkow, Cody Morse, Anna Hanson, Michael Raines, and Brandon Vickrey of ValpoLife.