It just got a lot easier to play at Signal Centers.
The nonprofit agency, which serves typically developing children and children with special needs, now has a playground where all children can play together.
The new accessible area, dubbed Friends Playground, will have a ribbon-cutting ceremony during the agency's "Come Play With Us" annual open house Thursday.
"Children who have a rich play environment are able to develop in a number of different ways, ways that strengthen the mind, body and soul," said Donna McConnico, executive director of the agency.
The $300,000 space is expected to be the first in the state nationally certified as a NatureGrounds playground because of its integration of manufactured play equipment and the living landscape. Funding came from four local foundations as well as money raised by Friends of Special Children and by the Signal Centers.
RIBBON-CUTTINGSignal Centers students will cut the ribbon to the agency's new Friends Playground as part of its "Come Play With Us" annual open house on Thursday from 4:30-6 p.m. Ice cream and lemonade will be served. The public is invited.INFANT-TODDLER PLAYGROUNDSignal Centers, with the opening of its Friends Playground, has two new areas for children to play. The other, the Infant-Toddler Playground on the other side of the building from the Friends Playground, was paid for by money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 through the Tennessee Early Intervention System, officials said. The playground is partially shaded, has a pour-and-play surface, includes a storage area and features a boat theme. It opens off the infant-toddler classrooms.
Price cuts by vendors and time donated by service providers accounted for an additional $100,000 in-kind gift, officials said.
Pam Schulman, president of Friends of Special Children, said the fourth fundraiser the nonprofit group did for the agency last year raised more money than all of its previous fundraisers for Signal Centers combined.
"It was big," she said, "and we were thrilled that it happened."
Planned for two years, the playground was completed in six months and replaces several fenced playgrounds that were crossed by a driveway.
With a covered pavilion, amphitheater and 24 speakers, the space will double as an outdoor classroom and provide a place for intergenerational activities with clients of the agency's adjoining adult program.
Graham Parker, director of the Signal Centers children's program, said the playground's design was a collaboration by staff members, child care experts, licensing personnel, safety experts, accessibility personnel, assessment experts and teachers.
Staff members also searched catalogs and websites, sought out playground experts and visited sites with similar children's areas.
Signal Centers employed A.D. Drive Engineering and the Affinity Group as contractor to complete the project.
By the time it was done, Parker said, the volunteers who helped contribute to the new space included parents of current and former students, students of Chattanooga State Community College's landscape and turf management instructor Casey Neal and 64 volunteers who assisted on Landscaping Day.
Neal said he and 10 to 12 students laid out the plants for Landscaping Day.
"Everything was in place," he said. "(The volunteers) just picked up their shovels and planted."
The landscaping involves 1,500 new plants and 15 new trees.
The play area and rubber surfacing, designed and installed by Chattanooga-based PlayCore, features a fire truck-themed climbing unit, swings, slides, parallel bars and a tunnel. A vine tunnel, planted with Carolina jasmine and honeysuckle, and a planting garden accentuate the overall incorporation of nature.
"Things that occur outside stimulate the brain" as do activities inside the classroom, Parker said. Everything that happens "once you get off the bus" can be a part of the curriculum, she said.