Welcome to Minnesota Play for All!
Thank you so much for stopping by. Our new website will be ready later this fall. For the latest on our project, check out the video below from WCCO News.
Our mission is for all to have fun and be included.
What started as a 5th and 6th grade passion project, has now expanded into a middle school grades 6-8 non-profit and club.
We want to make sure everyone has fun and is included.
We are committed to educating others about accessible playgrounds!
We are eager to create another accessible playspace here at our middle school.
Our Story
Minnesota Play for All is an initiative that started with compassion. At Glen Lake Elementary School in the Hopkins School District in Minnesota, our combined 5th- and 6th-grade class noticed that the kids who use wheelchairs were not equally included in all aspects of play at recess. Our classroom window looked out onto the playground, and we saw daily that not all of the students could access the standard swings and other playground features. These students were our friends we interacted with in both academic and non-academic activities, so we knew that our differences were what made us a great, loving community. Therefore, we decided to figure out a way to improve our playground so that everyone could swing.
We wrote a grant proposal that would help provide some of the funds for a wheelchair-accessible swing. When our class found out that we were awarded the grant, we quickly turned our sights to bigger things. “What if we changed the entire playground? Could we raise enough money?” Within one day, we decided to start a new passion project to fundraise for an accessible playground. We set our goal at $300,000. In forty-five short days, with the help of lots of people, we not only met our goal but surpassed it. We then quickly learned that to build a completely new playground, our budget would have to increase. Little did we know how much playgrounds really cost!
With the help of our teachers, we set out to fundraise, building skills that were new to us and finding confidence inside us we never knew we had. It started with making flyers and going door-to-door to our neighbors, but our efforts quickly expanded, and we dared to face our own nerves to appeal to the kindness of others. Our actions included making cold calls to small and large businesses, holding a silent auction, hosting garage and bake sales, having a coin drive, partnering with restaurants, and even connecting with professional sports teams in the Twin Cities for specialized T-shirts and tickets. All these actions and many more brought big attention to our small school in the western suburbs of Minneapolis. It was when an anonymous donor contributed a six-figure amount that we knew we could bring all our dreams to reality. With the combined compassion of other students, staff, and our community at large, we are doing more than improving a playground—we are building a legacy.
Students in our classroom had the opportunity to be involved in all aspects of the new playground. We worked with designers, local landscape architects, and engineers. We asked our school and local community about what they would like to see. We visited other playgrounds around the metro. And above all, we made sure that our new playground could include everyone.
Minnesota Play for All Non-Profit
What started as a simple fix at their elementary school (put in an accessible swing), turned into a HUGE and beautiful passion project. Students completed The Glen Lake Accessible Playground Project, a fully new accessible playground, and those same students decided to start a club and non-profit at their now middle school. Their mission: that all would have fun and be included. They have set their sights on a new project, an accessible playspace at their new middle school. In the future, they hope to continue to educate others about accessible playgrounds AND be able to support Minnesota communities on their accessible playground journeys. This is a lofty goal, but we truly believe this group of students are the future and they don’t want to stop until ALL can play on a playground.
Contact Information / Donations
Email: mnplayforall@gmail.com
Mailing Address (Inquires / Check donations)
MN Play for All - Hopkins West Middle School
3830 Baker Road, Minnetonka, MN 55305