A Special Playground Imagined by Our Children Was Built by You and Me.

The Moss Beach Park project was a collaborative effort of Coastside residents including parents, children, grandparents, other interested members of our community, and generous individuals and groups from around the Bay Area, who worked together to design, fund, build and enjoy a dream playground in Moss Beach. We brought all members of our community together to achieve this common goal.

Overview

Working with a nationally recognized playground design group, Leathers & Associates, we transformed the dreams of our children into a unique and magical playground. Leathers’ playground design and community playground concept, likened to an old-fashioned barn raising, has been featured in Smithsonian Magazine, Readers Digest, and on Sesame Street. Leathers’ group has designed and orchestrated construction for over 1600 playgrounds worldwide.

This playground is unlike those we played on as children, where the seesaws, swings and slides were firmly but precariously placed in asphalt. Our playground, designed by the children, and constructed by volunteers, is a cutting-edge fantasy environment.

At the official kick-off of the Moss Beach Park Project in January of 2004, an architect from the Leathers group spent a day at Farallone View Elementary School meeting with nearly 500 children from kindergarten to fifth grade. By day’s end, he had transformed the children’s dreams into a schematic plan for our new playground.

The Project Steering Committee then got very busy finalizing the design, raising money, soliciting donations of tools and materials, putting together a volunteer force of more than 600 worker bees, and organizing the food, childcare, and medical infrastructure to support everyone during the build. Finally, during 5 magical days of intense work and camraderie in the fall of 2004, all of our plans came to fruition, and our fabulous new playground was presented to the community. Here is the exciting opening.

Our children have designed a multi-leveled wooden play area which includes a castle, a whale slide, a lighthouse, a pirate ship, a sunken-treasure maze, and a rock wall for climbing. We also have a stage and amphitheater where visitors can gather, or parents can relax and watch their children.

The handicap-accessible structure is a continuous playscape which challenges children from ages 2-13 both physically and mentally while enhancing the Moss Beach Park. The success of this project was guaranteed through the help and support of everyone in our community. Many special people came forth with pledges of labor, materials, cash and food.

Get Involved.

If you woud like to join the group of volunteers that maintains Moss Beach Park, contact us to get involved:

Email
info@mossbeachpark.com

Or click here for more on how to Get Involved.