Children rush to test out new equipment

The newly completed playground at Garfield Elementary School was like a magnet Sunday evening.

As parents struggled to heft folding chairs and coolers from the backs of vehicles, their children made a bee-line straight for the new equipment. Visitors were celebrating the completion of the final phase of the project.

Nine-year-old Sydney Mattson, who will be a fourth-grader at Garfield Elementary next fall, was one of the first children to try out the latest additions.

First, she checked out a room styled after a castle, where she waved to her mother from a window. Next, she took up shop behind a built-in storefront in another area.

Eventually, she made her way up a long sloping ramp, to the very top of the structure where there was a twisty slide and a double slide leading back down.

“This is awesome,” said Sydney’s mother, Anne Mattson.

Sydney, who has cerebral palsy and uses a power wheelchair, could go nearly everywhere that her sisters Taylor and Riley could on the grounds.

In addition, a rubber tile play surface installed around the structure was easy for her to traverse in her wheelchair.

For Mattson, who volunteered on the project installing the tiles, it was the realization of a dream five years in the making by parents at the school who wanted a play structure that would be accessible to everyone.

In that spirit, the project also recognized a former student who was an inspiration to the Garfield community.

A new ship-like section of the final phase of the playground has been christened the “U.S.S. Matthew” in honor of Matthew Prevost, a former student at Garfield Elementary who died in 1991, at the age of six, from a number of health complications — including cerebral palsy.

Matthew’s parents Ron and Mary were also volunteers for the project.

“There are a lot of playgrounds that don’t have that type of sensitivity at all,” said volunteer Bud Ames on Sunday evening as he watched children in wheelchairs playing on the structure. “It’s great to see.”

Although an official opening ceremony for the playground is planned for sometime in September, Principal Juan Baez and volunteer coordinator Heidi Garza knew that once the structure was built they couldn’t expect to keep children away.

It was just too enticing.

Although there are still a couple of little details left, such as paving around the edges of the rubber tile area, they decided to open the playground to the public starting with Sunday’s gathering.

“There are lots of different levels; lots of different things to do,” Baez said on Sunday evening.

“It’s been a large undertaking which was only possible through the efforts of volunteers,” he added. “It’s a good example of when you want something, to stay focused.”

For the school’s next project, Baez hopes to create a small community plaza with benches next to the playground.

In the meantime, the playground has already become a popular neighborhood meeting place in its own right.

Garfield parents Alicia and Todd Jacob, who live nearby, plan on bringing their three children to the playground often.

“We will be getting a lot of sneak peeks from now until school starts,” said Alicia Jacob.