Park Ridge moms design accessible playground

PARK RIDGE, Ill. - A Park Ridge community playground is getting a much-needed makeover thanks to two local moms and their 6-year-old daughters.

The result will be a play space for kids of all abilities. 

Navigating her school's playground is not fun and games for 6-year-old Ariella Stone.

"Ariella has a visual impairment and one of the things is she has no depth perception, so something as simple as the monkey bars is something she really struggled with," Zulie Stone said.

But Ariella is not alone. Her best friend Coco Hoban has Cerebral Palsy and is also unable to use the playground.  

Struggling to watch their children navigate Carpenter Elementary's 40-year-old playground in Park Ridge, the girl's mothers had an idea. Soon the whole community was on board. 

"We thought that it was common sense to have a playground that was accessible and when we realized that it wasn't, we kind of mentioned it and that's where the project took off from," Zulie said.

They designed a new accessible playground that includes a ramp to enter the space, braille, and ground-level play spaces.

The moms began fundraising in the fall, and are already a portion of the way to meeting their $300,000 goal to start the build.

"We were very thoughtful in our design, making sure it played into all different abilities and was exciting for children with disabilities and without," Jessica Hoban said.

They hope to have the new playground installed sometime next year.