MINNEAPOLIS — There will soon be a new playground for kids to go to in the Corcoran neighborhood. It's part of a nationwide effort to provide high-quality play spaces in communities of color.
The playground is located right next to YWCA Midtown off of Lake Street. After a few days of prepping the ground, volunteers from Blue Cross Blue Shield and Minneapolis company Welly Health PBC spent Friday bringing in the playground equipment. Welly is covering the project costs.
"It's really fun to see it come up so quickly," Welly CEO Tom Mondragon said. "I touched it with my own hands and secured the bolts and the team took a lot of care with the equipment but the equipment itself is amazing."
Welly partnered with KABOOM! to select the state-of-the-art gear, which includes a thunder head climber, an OmniSpin spinner and a couple of kid-approved bobble rides.
"We heard that KABOOM! was really terrific at identifying neighborhoods that needed it," Mondragon said.
According to KABOOM!'s website, nationally, "kids within communities of color disproportionately lack access to quality playspaces." So they chose the YWCA location, which serves infant through school aged children. YWCA Minneapolis president and CEO Shelley Carthen Watson says there hasn't been a playground on site since 2017.
"We had to remove our playground because it was no longer safe," Carthen Watson said. "It's really important for their motor development, for their social skills, and we're really thrilled that we have an opportunity to install a new playground here."
More than 300 kids are expected to use the playground per year. Rubber surfacing will be put down July 18 to make the site accessible. Surfacing takes three to five days to set, and after that, kids are welcome to come play.
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