This summer, children of all abilities on San Antonio’s South Side will have access to a renovated playground at Arnold Park, with new equipment and shaded spaces encouraging social interaction and sensory and imaginative play.
Rock music blasted from a speaker at the park on Thursday as more than 100 H-E-B employees broke a sweat building wooden benches for seating areas and mixing cement to support playground equipment. Some volunteers danced to the music between tasks.
A mural beside the park featuring children’s faces served as a reminder that the work was all for the kids who live in the southwest part of what’s considered South San Antonio.
The $500,000 renovation to Arnold Park was a collaborative effort among the city’s Parks and Recreation Department, KABOOM! and H-E-B. The city’s initial $300,000 budget for shading and surfacing was rounded out by $200,000 from the grocery company.
KABOOM!, a nonprofit that builds inclusive playgrounds across the country, completed its first project in San Antonio in 2009. Since then, it has worked on 15 park projects, said Derrick Dixon, senior project manager at KABOOM!
“We get a community partner who is looking to refurbish playgrounds in the area and match them up with a funder,” he explained. “KABOOM! Also has a relationship with the playground manufacturer and playground installers, and we do volunteer events.”
Arnold Park was selected for a renovation because it was outdated and “wasn’t completely inclusive,” said Jesus Leza, construction inspector for the city’s Parks and Recreation Department.
“Parks and Rec strives to make parks that reach every age group of every ability,” said Leza. “This one now is inclusive.”
A mini storefront with a window on rubber surfacing encourages children of all abilities to walk or roll up to the window and engage with other children, said Tony Forshage, landscape architect for the Parks and Recreation Department.
“The storefront creates an imaginary space, so it’s meant to appeal to a child’s imaginative play,” Forshage said.
Leza said the city tries to renovate a park with KABOOM! every one to two years, depending on the city’s budget.
“Right now we’re focusing on [adding] shading and the next big thing is opening more parks,” said Leza.
The playground at Arnold Park was designed by members of the community at a public input meeting held at the adjacent Ramirez Community Center in the spring, said Monica Garza, spokeswoman for H-E-B.
“Playgrounds when I was younger just consisted of monkey bars and a swing set, maybe a slide,” said Forshage. “In those days, no playground manufacturer thought about needing to integrate imaginative play, or have panels [with] musical instruments or have tactile and sensory impact on a child’s development and recreational value.”
Construction on the playground should be complete in the coming weeks, and a ribbon-cutting ceremony will be held in June, Garza said. The city will add shade and ensure it’s safe for use by July.
“It’s really important for us to bring an all-access park to the South Side of San Antonio,” Garza said.
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Councilwoman Adriana Rocha-Garcia (D4) said she “almost cried” when she heard of H-E-B’s funding for the Southside park.
“One in every seven people has a disability, but in my district, it’s one in every four,” she said. “A child’s imagination is an opportunity for us to do things we would have never imagined possible. For students to think creatively, they have to have the ability to imagine endless possibilities.”
