special projects
Ball Club Park/Playground:
Mobility Mania, in partnership with Circle of Healing and the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, is creating an inclusive accessible park/playground in Ball Club MN. The children of Ball Club envisioned a playground, and have worked on a design over the past two years with a playground planner from Flagship Recreation, flagshipplay.com. Their design incorporates inclusive, accessible equipment and poured-in-place accessible surfacing, while simultaneously highlighting the Ojibwe language and culture through signage and creatively-altered playground pieces. A significant number of children in the Ball Club area have mobility constraints, so providing inclusive, accessible opportunities to play for children of all abilities is of primary concern. Specialized accessible playground equipment, culturally-adapted equipment, and the poured-in-place groundcover required for optimum wheelchair mobility, will be significant expense.
This accessible park/playground was designed in the shape of a turtle, which is culturally significant to the Ojibwe People. Both accessible and regular playground equipment pieces will be installed on, and adjacent to, the poured-in-place surfacing. This will provide opportunities for integrated play for children of all abilities. Knowing that parents and grandparents will be accompanying kids to the park, the youth planners included an ADA certified picnic table and “chill space”. The kids anticipate these will be places of intergenerational social interaction, such as traditional storytelling and language revitalization.
Donations to help support the Ball Club Park/Playground can be made directly to the Grand Rapids Area Community Foundation (GRACF) with Ball Club Playground written in the memo. Mail check to: GRACF 350 NW 1st Ave. Grand Rapids, MN 55744
PICNIC TABLE BUILD
Another example of community collaboration was when Mobility Mania and Boy Scout Troop 4041 joined efforts and built 25 wheelchair accessible picnic tables and donated them to the City of Grand Rapids and surrounding communities. Now the cities of Big Fork, Deer River, Cohasset, Nashwauk and Coleraine all have an accessible picnic table thanks to this effort, as well as 20 of them residing in Grand Rapids area city parks. This project was funded by a generous grant awarded from the Home Depot Foundation. Thanks to the Itasca County Fairgrounds who provided the building on construction day and to the 60+ volunteers who came out that chilly morning. The City of Grand Rapids pre-cut the boards ahead of time and in 4 hours, 25 wheelchair accessible picnic tables were built and ready for the next summer season.
TALL TIMBER DAYS
Hats off to Tall Timber Days for their support of Accessibility For All. Now there is designated seating for people in wheelchairs at the Tall Timber Days parade. Mobility Mania sure does enjoy participating in this event and thanks Tall Timber Days for their support.
TRAILS TASK FORCE
The mission of the Itasca County Trails Task Force is, in cooperation with public agencies and organizations, to foster development and long-term sustainability of a multi-faceted system of quality recreational trails and facilities in the Itasca County area that meets the needs of residents and visitors. Trails Task Force members support the premise that well-designed, properly maintained, and widely promoted systems of trails add substantially to the quality of life for the citizens in the Itasca County area. Trails are a significant economic driver, especially important for the tourism and forest industries.
Mobility Mania is proud to have collaborated with the Trail Task Force in adopting a new Trails Plan to include accessibility. Their objective is to support awareness and educate user groups of accessible non-motorized trails throughout Itasca County, and promote efforts to fund improvements to make more trails accessible to “differently-abled” individuals who wish to enjoy our county’s wilderness. They hope to support the development of a universal signage system identifying the width of clearance for a trail and its degree of accessibility (similar to a green/blue/black designation for downhill skiing).
Check out trail options at Visit Grand Rapids https://visitgrandrapids.com/things-to-do/hiking/.