Brooklyn's Playground!

I hope by now you all have heard a thing or two about Brooklyn's Playground! But for those of you that haven't let me give ya a little background on a HUGE project the Fisher family has started.....

When Brooklyn was little I thought she would definately be walking independently by now (she is almost 5!) but about 2 years ago we realized our little girl needed a quicker mode of trasportation and got her a wheelchair. She loves it, we love it, and every person we come in contact with can't help but smile when they see my sweet Brookie cruising around in her hot pink chair.

About the same time she got her chair, we went to a cousins birthday party at a local playground. Since we have no playgrounds locally that accomodate wheelchairs, we put her knee pads and gloves on her (so she could crawl across the bark or course to play with her cousins) Well she got burnt out quickly and soon wanted to swing. There were no 'baby' swings so her dad put her in a regular swing....which she fell out of and got a concussion.

As Brooklyn got bigger it became harder and almost impossible for either one of us to enjoy our time at the playground. I either had to carry her everywhere, or I would watch while she was left behind sitting in the rocks or bark as the other children played. The summer I was pregnant with Leah, we skipped going to the playground at all. I simply couldn't do it by myself anymore...

Enter the idea for Brooklyn's Playground!!! For tons more info and awesome pics, visit our website at http://www.brooklynsplayground.org/ . This little idea of ours to build a playground that accomodates the needs of children of ALL abilites has been exciting, exhausting, fulfilling, and very terrifying. This playground is designed (the design is AWESOME), funded, and built by members in and around our community. So we are currently trying to fundraise $400,000 for this bad boy.

Design Day Celebration: it took us almost a year and a half to get to this day!

Just last month we had design day. We flew in a designer from New York. He took the ideas from us, the local elementary school kids, and our committe members, and by the end of the night he un-veiled the playground design at a celebration we held at a local elementary school.

We even have a theme song that brings tears to my eyes everytime I hear it sung....especially by these very talented young kids who belong to the ISU children's choir. They are amazing.

Brooklyn's Winter Picnic for the Park: (this was our first official fundraiser and it raised over $20,000!)

Brooklyn had no idea that this was all because of her. She just wanted to see the princesses!

We had around 1,500 people show up. As you can see, it was a great turn out.

The beautiful Jasmine and Aladdin.

We have alot more things planned as we go along. We are nearing the $100,000 mark, and are hoping to be ready to build by September, but we still have along ways to go. Visit our website to see how you can help!