100 Hometowns: Bringing a special needs playground to life

Dec 08, 2021

Amy Decker still gets emotional every day as she drives past the brand new playground she helped bring to her rural Ohio community. 

“Oh my gosh I almost cried even today. Whenever I drive past the kids, they have so much fun. Every day I go by and there are kids playing. It’s just so exciting.”

Decker’s daughter Rowyn is one of two girls the Randolph Township, Ohio playground is named for. It’s called Mila’s Hope and Rowyn’s Dream Playground. The giant state-of-the-art playground is specially designed to accommodate kids with special physical or sensory needs and be inclusive for all kids. Decker and a team of people spent four and a half years raising a million dollars to build the playground that features a spongy rubber surface so that kids who use walkers or wheelchairs can get around easily. 

“I’m a teacher and I think this project pulls at your heartstrings,” said Mandi Phillips, a board member who helped make the playground happen.

Phillips is also a special education teacher and said, “We’re building a place where kids can play and feel safe and accepted and seeing the community pull together to make it happen was really special.”

But Phillips points out, there wasn’t enough money to do everything they wanted in one phase. Until Lowe’s stepped in.

We were coming down to the wire where we had to make big decisions on what we could afford. Getting the money from Lowe’s allowed us to do all of it at once.

Mandi Phillips, Board Member

Lowe’s gave the playground project $135,000 as part of its 100 Hometowns initiative, celebrating the retailer’s centennial. The money helped build a sensory garden along the perimeter of the playground and a team of Lowe’s associates spent eight days working on a giant sandbox and what’s called a “wonky house” for the kids to play in.

Ralph Staten is the manager at the Macedonia, Ohio Lowe’s store that helmed the project. 

“The biggest thing for me is the people that stopped and said thank you and spent time with us as we were building and they appreciated all the work that we did.”

He says his team took as much away from the project as the kids and the community. 

“I’m just filled with a ton of emotions. I was over there watching the kids play in the play box and it just makes you want to cry because you know those kids are going to have a blast. If you are a child in a wheelchair and you’re coming to a playground you just sit and watch other kids have a good time whereas now with this playground, you get to participate. That’s what it’s all about.”

 

 

For Susan Monegan, Mila’s grandmother, the playground is literally a dream come true. Eight-year-old Mila is non-verbal and can also be unsteady on her feet. Monegan came up with the idea for the playground while pushing Mila on the swings a few years ago. She realized beyond the swings, there wasn’t much her special needs grandchild could do at a playground and she figured they weren’t the only family facing this issue. That’s when she formed the group that helped raise the money for the new playground.

“Normally Mila needs to take an adult's hand to move from place to place but at this playground she feels free to go to another play structure and she doesn’t have to hold someone’s hand. She feels ok here and watching her around the other kids, they don’t even bat an eye that she’s different, it just brought tears to my eyes.”