Memorial playground being built

Helping to turn a tragedy into a miracle, a New York playground designer created plans for a new memorial park in River Heights, Tuesday, with the input of community children.

After a tragedy in which two-year-old Ryan Adams, son of Craig and Alicia Adams, drowned, his family decided to build the memorial park, "Ryan's Place," from the money they received in lieu of flowers.

With the help of 2,000 volunteers, the park will be built in mid-May. The town donated the existing Heber Olsen Park for the construction site, said Alicia Adams.

The design for the park was made in one day from the ingenuity of Barry Segal, a designer from Leathers and Associates, of Ithaca, New York. He asked nearly 150 students at River Heights Elementary School to close their eyes and dream of the perfect playground.

"He built it right before our eyes," said Craig Adams. "It was nothing less than miraculous."

Segal presented his plans that evening to an auditorium of nearly 300 community members, many wearing bright green T-shirts that read "Ryan's Place - Our Place, Too." He told the community that this project, besides increasing real-estate value, would bring a miracle to the community.

"Every project I've been on has had a miracle," Segal said. "We are yet to see the miracle in this project…Some of this is like Moses walking up to the Red Sea. You have to walk up to it and wait for the miracles to happen."

The family has already witnessed several miracles through the tragedy, but has yet to see the phenomenon Segal spoke of.

"You look at the support and that is a miracle in and of itself," said Alicia Adams.

During Segal's presentation, he invited the children to the front and engaged them in the tale of a child's first-time journey through the playground.

His explanation of the newly designed plans started at the climbing wall, the beginning of an adventure: climb up the wall and into the castle tower, go across the suspension bridge, down into the dungeon, and escape a dragon by sliding down his back. He continued to explain to the children how each idea had been incorporated into a playground centered around a giant rocket.

In addition to listening to the children's ideas, Segal included the mothers, too. A requested observation point between two age-specific sections will allow mothers to keep an eye on all their children. One division is for two to five-year-olds and another for the older children.

"He truly implemented the kids' ideas into that plan," said Alicia Adams. "When we say Ryan's Place is our place, too, it truly is."

Alicia Adams said her son, Ryan, would have approved of the playground design. He loved boats, swinging, and singing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star": three elements that are part of the playground design.

"[The project] has been the best therapy. You can channel all your emotion and feelings into something positive. It brings people together, it just brings so much love and excitement," she said.

The park will be built by volunteers in a five-day construction blitz in May with funding from the community and company donors, states the press release from USU's department of journalism and communication.

From this funding, Leathers and Associates, a nationally-recognized playground design team, makes it their goal to build an environment that will foster parent-child relationships and improve the community.

The park will attract children from all over the valley. Schools will stop here for field trips and families will stop for a place to do something together, Segal said.

"The park stays as a symbol of what the community has done for their children," he said. "River Heights is a great place to grow up in and a great place to grow old in."

Despite the current support from the community, the project is lacking the necessary funding and volunteers. For information on how to help, visit ryansplacepark.com.

-lrose@cc.usu.edu