“We would take him to playgrounds and he would be left just sitting and watching kids play,” Natalie Blakemore.
Today was community build day at Cornerstone Playground at O’Fallon Park.
Unlimited Play designed and is leading construction at Cornerstone, an all-inclusive playground for children with disabilities.
Sixty volunteers from Unlimited Play, The St. Louis Dream Center-North Campus, O’Fallon Park Neighborhood Association, St. Louis Office for Developmental Disabilities Resources, and the Incarnate Word Foundation came out to support the cause.
21st Ward Alderman Antonio French attended the groundbreaking in February.
Construction began at the playground on March 26.
Blakemore’s then three-year-old son Zachary provided the original inspiration behind Unlimited Play.
Zachary suffers from a rare genetic central nervous system disease (Pelizaeus Merzbacher Disease) that confines him to a wheelchair or assistive walking device, as stated on Unlimited Play’s website.
“I can’t fix his disease or give him the ability to walk. But, I can give him the chance to play,” Natalie said.
Natalie and her husband, Todd Blakemore, established the nonprofit Unlimited Play. She wants people to know that her son is just like “every other kid out there.” The playground is a perfect place for children to start to break down those barriers, she said. Zachary’s Playground was built in Lake St. Louis in April 2007. A total of four playgrounds have been opened across the greater St. Louis-area and 11 nationwide, she said.
“As soon as we opened we got calls from across the nation from families just like ours asking for our help to build playgrounds so their children could play,” she said.
Natalie Blakemore again began receiving calls; this time from parents of Autistic children. These parents found it difficult to enjoy an outing at the park with their children who they said “have a hard time understanding boundaries.”
“They run into roads and parking lots,” they told Natalie Blakemore. “They asked us to fence in the playground.”
The playground also features a musical instrument section, tile-surfacing for easy mobility, swings with high backs, shade structures for disabled children who have a hard time regulating their body temperature, and a climbing net. The playground will be dedicated to the late Shirley Ann Williams, a longtime resident of the 21st Ward. Like Williams who took pride in her neighborhood, Natalie Blakemore hopes people will “adopt” the park to help make sure that it is “taken care of.”
The playground will open July 12 and Clear Channel St. Louis will host a block party that day beginning at 3 p.m.
Follow this reporter on Twitter: @BridjesONeil
