Jeanne McMindes P’18 sat quietly on a wooden bench, taking in the extraordinary scene in front of her, a picture-window view of the new nature playground at Abington Friends School.

“What I love about it,” she said, “is that it looks magical. It doesn’t look like a playground. That’s what’s special about it.”

Jeanne was among several hundred AFS community members who were on campus on September 9 for a dedication ceremony for the new Headwaters Discovery Playground.  A botanist by training, she was one of seven professionals with close ties to AFS who had lent their expertise to create a concept design for the new play space.

“I really think it will lead AFS in a new direction, “ Jeanne said, adding that the new playground held so much promise from multiple points of view — environmental, ecological sustainability and educational.

Jeanne was part of the Headwaters Discovery Playground parent/professional team led by landscape architect Bernard Panzak P’17. Other members included Nina Bisbee P’16, Nick Davatzes P’ 27 and P’23, Carina Urbach P’22, former AFS science teacher Jim Pierson and AFS Outside Director Rosanne Mistretta.

Dream Team: From left,  Jeanne McMindes, Nina Bisbee, Rosanne Mistretta, Bernard Panzak, Nick Davatzes and Carina Urbach.

Rosanne guided a consensus-building process for more than four years that sifted through a bounty of ideas for the new playground that were offered by faculty, staff, parents, students and every other aspect of the school community. The parent/professional team refined those ideas into a concept sketch and AFS hired Metcalfe Architecture & Design with Viridian Landscape Studio, both of Philadelphia, to design the play space and bring it to life.

“It look a long time, but it was worth it,” Rosanne said. “We got what the kids wanted.”

—

 

With the snip of a blue ribbon, Head of School Rich Nourie and School Committee Member Susan Salesky Rudin ’57 officially opened the new playground that enlarges the School’s innovative footprint of hands-on learning in the outdoors.

Youngsters flooded onto the play space, heading for the two wooden fort towers, rope bridges, slide, goat path and old-fashioned water pumps that turned dry basins into fresh ponds. They climbed on a natural stage of boulders and tall grasses, a landscape that beckoned them to play with abandon, explore the outdoors and discover lessons in nature for themselves.

“We believe the experience of the natural world is absolutely essential for children’s development,” Head of School Rich Nourie told the crowd at the dedication ceremony. He called the opening of the new playground for children in grades one though eight “a signature day” in the life of the School.

“It really is a dream come true,” Rich said, noting the project was more than five years in the making and lauded those who had brought it to fruition.

The ceremony opened with third and fourth graders reading Rebecca Kai Dotlich’s poem, “A Circle of Sun.” Lower School Director Andrea Emmons, who directed the reading, told the audience, “We’re here to celebrate years of planning, dreaming and hard work.”

The $650,000 nature playground was dedicated to the Class of 1957. Susan Salesky Rudin, president of that class and, along with her husband, Jack, a big supporter of the project, spoke quietly yet powerfully about what the school has meant to her.

“I can’t help but think of the little school I went to across the street in the Triangle Building and how much the School has changed. In this very complicated world, one thing that never changes at AFS is its deep concern for the student’s inner sense.

“This is at the core of what I learned at this school. And this is at the core of what I carried with me” through the years, she said.

Then she and Rich headed over to the ribbon, and with an oversized pair of scissors and amid a blizzard of confetti, opened a path for children to create their own adventures.

—

Days later, after the hubbub was finished and recess was only minutes away, a handful of second graders in Sandy Scott Mraz’s class were asked what they liked best about the new playground and why they felt that way.

Here is what they said:

Madison: Playing in the water. I like to make sure the plants have enough water.

 James: The rope bridge. It’s so cool. I climbed on it, even with my broken arm.

 Tori: The water. When you’re really hot, you can put your arm in the water. But not your head, because then you’ll get the classroom all wet.

River: The tube (below a wooden tower). Because you can crawl in there on your knees, and you can make a good hiding spot, too.