NEDERLAND, Texas — A playground with a purpose to serve all children is coming to Nederland.
Construction is underway at Doornbos Heritage Park to add an inclusive playground that would provide children with disabilities the equipment to have fun, too.
This project was a collaboration between the City of Nederland and Adaptive Sports for Kids, a nonprofit organization that gives kids and adults with disabilities an opportunity to play sports.
"You see how much of an impact it makes on the not only the youths lives, but their parents and their families lives to get to see their kids do something that maybe they wouldn't be able to do if there wasn't an inclusive playground," said Nederland City Manager Chris Duque.
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Duque is proud of the progress made, from voting to make this addition to the park back in March to now using COVID-19 relief funds to make it all possible.
"The project is right around $539,000 it is a much more expensive playground than we normally have at the moment because of the rubber flooring that is a completely different setup than we have on our parks," Duque said.
This new setup will have real impact on community members like Ligia Cortez and her family.
"I have a family member and he is autistic, and sometimes when we are at the park I feel a little bit uneasy because he likes to wander off sometimes, so the fact that there will have some where that it's gated especially for kids where they have that disability," Cortez said.
The city is working closely with Adaptive Sports for Kids Director Allen National, consulting on how the equipment will benefit all kids.
"Kids with special needs and adults with special needs as well as their brothers and sisters it's all inclusive, that's exactly what we like to see," National said.
These are changes that people at Doornbos Heritage Park can expect to see within the next six weeks of construction time.
The city has a lot of people to thank for pushing this idea, including the late Gaye Ferguson, who had this as the last project she helped on before she passed.