THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, November 3, 1994 TAG: 9411010098
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JOAN C. STANUS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 103 lines
They have a name, they have a design and they have the volunteers.
Now, they just need the $200,000 it will take to build Norfolk's version of Kid's Cove and Fort Fun.
If all goes as planned, by next spring ``Imagination Island'' at Northside Park will be the largest playground of the bunch and the only one entirely barrier-free.
With a projected 160,000 square feet of play area, the planned playground will be about three times the size of Kid's Cove at Mount Trashmore in Virginia Beach.
``It's exciting,'' said Diane Koffman, one of the project's coordinators. ``It's finally becoming a reality.''
There's just the money hitch.
On Saturday, Oct. 22, school teachers and their students, parks officials and volunteers from the community gathered at Northside Park for the official kickoff of the project's fund-raising efforts.
Throughout the day, at the playground's future site, pony rides, a basketball tournament and other activities were held to raise money. Arts and crafts, T-shirts and food also were sold.
``Today, we're really just letting people know what we're doing and trying to get people involved,'' Koffman said. ``We probably won't make a lot today .
The playground project was hatched by students in three public schools participating in a national pilot program to improve education.
In perhaps a first for Norfolk, students and teachers at Norview High School, Rosemont Middle School and Tanners Creek Elementary began last school year to elicit community help and financial support in building the playground.
Now, a year later, more than half the 50 volunteers are Norfolk public school students, teachers and their parents.
``These kids are learning about what's really needed for their community,'' said Koffman, a Rosemont Middle School teacher whose life-skills class originally came up with the project. ``They're seeing that they can make a difference, they can make a change.''
Plenty of volunteers already have offered to help build the playground, a job similar to putting together a ``giant erector set,'' said Sandy Knight, a Norview High School science teacher and the other coordinator. Unlike the wooden Kids Cove, Imagination Island will be constructed of plastic-coated steel playground equipment, a more durable material that requires less maintenance.
``Instead of hammers and nails, we'll be using screw drivers, wrenches and ratchets,'' she explained.
Black and Decker and the Henry Walke Company already have offered to donate all the tools necessary for the construction, the coordinators said.
They hope to build the playground in late April.
The necessary funding for the playground, however, is still a ways off. Organizers have received a $5,000 donation from The Celia Stern Foundation and about $4,000 in other contributions. Koffman said she has written proposals to various foundations asking for more than $85,000 in funding. She's still waiting for word on the grant approvals.
Meanwhile, organizers are banking on corporate, business and community sponsorship. For donations ranging from $200 to $800, engraved name plates will be affixed to components of the playground. Boards of the picket fence can be purchased for $25 donations.
The students have undertaken a massive letter-writing campaign to solicit help from the community and plan a citywide ``coin challenge'' Nov. 3-23 among classmates. They hope to raise about $16,000 from the challenge.
Norview High School juniors Kristina Gasapo and Jamie Krenek designed an Imagination Island T-shirt that also is being sold to raise funds.
To help or for more information, call the Imagination Hotline at 853-5066.
What will it look like
When they first came up with an idea for a playground at Northside Park, students at Rosemont and Norview went directly to those in the know for ideas on planning its layout.
They asked students at Tanners Creek Elementary for a dream playground wish list.
After some professional design alterations, the plans for the new playground are based on their wishes.
Imagination Island will be divided into four separate play areas connected by a dock-style walkway that runs in a barrier-free circle:
The largest area will contain a playground cluster with all sorts of apparatus, including a spiral climber, a carousel whirl, a suspension bridge, overhead flyer and a 14-foot whirlwind slide.
Tire swings and overhead gliders will fill a second section.
A third area will be devoted to swing sets and a sandbox.
Lastly, a toddler play area will be situated under the trees and equipped with lower-to-the ground climbing clusters for younger children.
Park benches will be located throughout the play areas and atop a berm, to be constructed behind the largest playground section, so parents will have several vantage points from which to watch their children, organizers say.
Complementing its nautical theme, Imagination Island will have a sunken ship in the middle of a sandbox. ILLUSTRATION: Photos by JOAN STANUS
This an artist's sketch of what Imagination Island will look like.
From left, Sandy Knight, Amparo Gasap and Diane Koffman are
spearheading the effort to get Imagination Island built.
by CNB