The new Kaleidoscope Playground at Kiwanis Park in St. Joseph will officially open next week.
Michelle Binkley was among the organizers of the effort to purchase a totally new playground for the park, telling us she and partners wanted to create a play space in the community that would be accessible to kids of all abilities. They identified a place and then began raising funds.
“It’s $1.3 million, all brand new equipment,” Binkley said. “The equipment that was there was at its end of its life. And so we had talked to the parks board to see which of the parks in the area would be the best place when we were kind of dreaming this up. And they said that would be the best one because it’s kind of walkable from the city, it’s a community playground, and it is also, it was also at the end of its life.”
Binkley says the new Kaleidoscope Playground features a two-bay accessible zip-line, a ramped main play structure with a kaleidoscopic tunnel, a modern merry-go-round and adaptive swing with spaces for wheelchairs, a designated toddler play space, and a musical instruments center.
The Southwest Michigan Regional Chamber, the city of Saint Joseph, the Kiwanis Club of St. Joseph-Benton Harbor, and the St. Joseph Parks Foundation are inviting the public to come and celebrate completion of the project with a ribbon cutting next Monday, June 30 from 4 to 6 p.m.
