Community, city, and school leaders in Appleton cut the ribbon on Columbus Elementary's new playground on Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024. PC: Fox 11 Online
APPLETON, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — From a dream to reality: a new playground at Columbus Elementary School in Appleton’s Historic Central Neighborhood is finally open.
“I was really excited and wanted to play on it more and more and more,” says Cece, a 2nd grader, about the new playground at her school.
The vision for the space has been 10 years in the making.
It all started in 2013 when Columbus students were asked what their ideal playground would look like.
“The playground prior to this renovation, which just got finished a few weeks ago, was 99% asphalt,” says Brianne Connelly, who lives in Appleton’s Historic Central Neighborhood, and who is a member of the local parent/teacher organization (PTO).
Since those students wrote down their playground dreams, neighborhood volunteers and PTO members have been working to try to bring the space new life, because no kid likes to slide into the kickball second base on asphalt.
Neighbors like Connelly and Rebecca Zornow were able to secure a neighborhood grant through the city of Appleton last fall, and that’s when the plan was really set in motion.
“It’s just a sign that when neighbors come together with an idea, they can really make it happen and benefit our children,” Zornow says.
Zornow, who also gives in the neighborhood and is part of the local PTO, says it’s so much more than just new playground equipment and a green space.
“This neighborhood uses the Columbus playground as a meeting point, it is a 125-year-old school so all the neighbors are used to coming to this place to congregate,” she says. “All of the students, you know, they live in the neighborhood, this is where they walk to on the weekends to play.”
Connelly says this central-city project, though in an area where there’s not as much space or maybe as much funding as other communities or neighborhoods, proves it doesn’t matter where you live. You can make a change in your neighborhood.
“We can have those amenities and those beautiful things, and that is the reality of this neighborhood, it always really has been but this is a visual cultural shift maybe.”
For this neighborhood, the years of work were worth it.
“I said Mom and Dad, I love that new playground,” 2nd grader Dejah said. “I just wish we could play out here for the whole day.”
“I wish I could, like, sleep here forever!” adds Cece.
During Wednesday’s ribbon cutting, Zornow said she was thinking of those 2013 students, who by now are in their late teens and early 20s.
“73% of kids at Columbus said we wanted this change to happen and we want more grass to play on and making that come true for their younger siblings, for them to bring children to here, it means a lot.”
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