By JEANNI RITCHIE
I recently picked a friend’s child up from school while she was recovering from surgery and we went in search of a little outdoor fun. We found it at the Coughlin Saunders Inclusive Park in Alexandria at the site of the former Bringhurst Field.
Built in 2020, it brings life to the nearly century-old Cenla mainstay that was fraught with time, a natural disaster, and a preservation fight over the last couple of decades.
But before that, there was so much life.
Once home to the minor-league baseball team, the Alexandria Aces, and one of the top two locations scouted for the 1992 flick A League of Their Own, Bringhurst Field was once a popular destination for tourists, residents, and hundreds of school field trips.
The Coughlin-Saunders Inclusive Playground brings that vitality back to our community for children of all abilities.
With adaptive playground equipment easily accessed from the parking lot, children and parents alike are grateful for the local offering.
Like Sailor Dunn-Basco, 11, from Pineville. Her mother brings her to the playground once or twice a week when the temperatures are mild, overheating causing life-threatening issues for her young body. She loves the swings and meeting new friends. Her mother is grateful for the opportunity for free play during cooler months.
After all, there aren’t many options for parents with limited budgets in Central Louisiana, especially for children with disabilities.
Able-bodied children are welcome as well, and the inclusion orchestrated innately by them is an example we should all follow.
The park on the corner of Masonic and Babe Ruth Drive was funded by donors through the Cabrini Foundation and Coughlin-Saunders Foundation in honor of the families of the Pediatric Therapy Center at CHRISTUS St. Frances Cabrini Hospital.
In Rapides Parish there are more than 3,300 special needs children between the ages of 5 and 18 with physical disabilities, autism, cognitive impairment and sensory processing disorders being the most prevalent.
Constructed by Majestic Playgrounds of Baton Rouge, the property includes slide transfer decks for wheel chair users, a sensory wave climber that caters to children with autism and sensory processing disorders, a Rock N Raft with wheel chair access, a roller slide, multiple ability-level swings, and a sensory wave seat.
I had to take my turn on the wave seat as well!
This first-of-its-kind offering in Central Louisiana for able-bodied children as well as children with special needs is inclusion at its finest and reminds me why my Alexandria hometown has always remained so dear to my heart.
Jeanni Ritchie is a playground-loving journalist who makes it a point to find at least one playground with swings in every city she visits across the country.