Mankato Downtown Kiwanis to create inclusive playground with Legacy of Play award

Legacy-of-Play-blog

A fourth grader who uses a wheelchair will soon get to play on the playground with her friends. Her story helped convinced a panel of judges to award the Mankato Downtown Kiwanis Club $25,000 worth of inclusive playground equipment in the Legacy of Play Contest, sponsored by Landscape Structures Inc. and Kiwanis International. The award will be used to develop the Fallenstein Playground, an all-inclusive playground where children and families of all abilities can develop, discover, laugh and experience the joy of play.

Mankato, 75 miles southwest of Minneapolis, is renowned for its great parks and trails, and offers breathtaking landscapes of rivers, lakes, ravines, bluffs, natural prairies and forested areas. With a population of nearly 41,000, Mankato offers small town living in a thriving regional center. The all-inclusive Fallenstein Playground will be located adjacent to Fallenstein Field, the fully accessible baseball field used by the Miracle League of North Mankato, in Caswell Park.

mankato-park-blog

The Mankato Downtown Kiwanis Club will complete its inclusive playground project on or around Kiwanis One Day in October 2018. Learn more about the project.

Custom design creates destination playground

Sibley Park, Mankato, Minn.

Sibley Park in Mankato, Minn., recently opened its new farmstead-themed playground. The playground is installed next to Sibley Farm, a petting zoo complete with alpacas, calves, goats, peacocks, horses, pigs, lambs, chicks and ducklings, and the playground structures match the red barn-style buildings of the zoo.

Our local playground consultant, Flagship Recreation, and our custom design team at Landscape Structures collaborated with the client to create a one-of-a-kind play area. Using a variety of materials, they created two barn-themed playstructures, a chicken coop structure, pig pen, tractor climber, corn stalk climbers, a wagon-themed seesaw and much more. What makes the playground come alive are the farm animals—chickens, coyotes, horses and pigs—sculpted from concrete and hand painted by our team of artists.

The new farmstead-themed playground has quickly become a destination play space for communities surrounding Mankato. Kids and families visit the playground regularly to explore and play. Check out the below video of the playground in action, then see if for yourself at 900 Mound Avenue in Mankato.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/MgKXiWm-XIg]