In September of 2012, the Bakker family of five embarked on their first long family road trip, driving 17 hours to visit grandparents at their mountain cabin near Yellowstone Park. Little did they know that the drive would take a big toll on their son, Wyatt, who is prone to motion sickness, or that something life-changing was about to happen. Only a few hours from their destination, Wyatt was sick again, and the Bakker’s pulled off the highway to clean up and let the kids burn off some steam. They did a quick search on their phones for the closest park in Pocatello, Idaho, and found one just a few blocks away.
They were genuinely unprepared for the amazing experience about to unfold. The family walked up to a beautiful, huge playground, and the big kids ran off to explore. They were immediately struck by the beauty and uniqueness of the park…with the ground completely covered with poured-in-place rubber, huge and inviting structures built with elaborate ramp systems, and dozens of swings. This was unlike any park they had ever seen before! The signs at the entrance told the story of Brooklyn’s Playground, which was fundraised and built by their entire community and coordinated by the family of a little girl with Spina Bifida named Brooklyn. It explained how this playground is all-inclusive, and fully accessible to every child…a place for children to play side-by-side with their friends, whether they are able-bodied or need things like walkers or wheelchairs to move about.
They looked around again and saw this playground through a fresh set of eyes…the eyes of parents with a child who is unable to move on her own. To take this all in was a bit overwhelming, and they found an adaptive swing to push Tatum in for a while as their other children played. They then noticed a young girl in a wheelchair playing in a large, rocking pirate ship structure, surrounded by her able-bodied friends. Part of the emotion they felt was in realizing they never knew playgrounds like this were out there…where all children could play together. With Tatum recently acquiring her first wheelchair, they hadn’t thought through the fact that when they take their family to a typical playground, Tatum could not participate and maneuver in sand or bark and be included. But in an environment like this, everyone was able to play, explore, and just be a kid. It became quickly apparent that there was nowhere like this in Monterey County and that they had a calling to build an accessible playground in their community.
The Bakker Family connected with Leathers & Associates, the design company that built Brooklyn’s Playground, who have built over 3,000 playgrounds around the world in the last 40+ years. Before they knew it, an Executive Committee was coming together, and they were searching for a location that would best serve the needs of kids in the community. The name for the park: Tatum’s Garden.
In their initial research, they found that there were over 6,800 children enrolled in Monterey County public schools with some type of special need – whether that was physical, emotional, or mental, – and that count did not include children like Tatum who were below school-age at the time or those in private school. The need was and is huge. They also learned that there wasn’t an inclusive, accessible playground like this nearby; at the time it was the only accessible park in a 250 miles radius!
First came securing a location, and the City of Salinas was a huge help, securing a space near the Rodeo grounds to develop the park. Working with Leather’s and Associates, the local community, and local students, they developed a design which followed a garden theme and incorporated the look and feel of the community into the park.
Next came the fundraising. Donations were both large and small, and hundreds of little fundraisers were held over the course of the year, resulting in donations of 1.7 million dollars. Bricks and pickets with family names on them were sold. Entire elements of the garden-themed park were sponsored.
The final step, and arguably the most fun, was getting thousands of volunteers to help build the park in just a few weeks. The community really came together to help build the park.
After Construction of Tatum’s Garden, the Tatum Garden Foundation was formed to continue to foster inclusive play.
This is the same model that the Tatum Garden Foundation and Carmel Valley Community Youth Center are putting in place to build Tatum’s Treehouse.
