Verhagen Park Playground Fundraiser

The Village of Kimberly has approved over $90,000 to purchase new playground equipment in 2024 for Verhagen Park. This is in replacement of equipment that has reached well past its lifespan in a park that is directly across the street from Kimberly’s only Elementary School. The playground equipment is scheduled to be installed in Summer of 2024 with an engineered wood fiber play surface (wood chips). This decision was made to invest more dollars into the equipment and provide more play amenities for the budgeted $90,000. The new playground includes a variety of slides, swings for people of all abilities, a ninja ramp, and a “kid powered” game!

As a result, the Village of Kimberly is embarking upon a fundraising campaign to provide poured in place (squishy rubber) play surfacing for underneath the new playground. In order to provide this surfacing throughout the new playground, the village is asking businesses and individuals to support the capital campaign to raise the $75,000 needed to purchase and install the surfacing. All donated dollars will be recognized with signage installed at the park after the playground is installed. Every dollar counts, and every dollar helps.  If interested, check out the fundraising brochure here.  Thank you for your consideration of supporting kids and families in our Kimberly community! 

Why use poured in place vs. traditional wood chips? A few of the benefits of poured in place include:

• Providing a uniform surface that allows the playground to truly be ADA accessible so people of all abilities can play together. Surfacing such as wood chips creates a barrier to play for wheelchairs and other mobility devices to access the play equipment. 
• Poured in place offers consistently safe fall surfacing. Unlike woodchips which can degrade over time and be displaced in high use zones like at the base of the slides and under the swings. Compliant fall surfacing needs to provide 1 inch of material for every 1 foot of height up to the tallest foot hold on a structure. Displaced woodchips happen easily and quickly reduce fall safety of a playground.
• The Village of Kimberly consistently audits the playground within our parks for fall safety compliance as well as aesthetics. Poured in place, while increasing safety, also increases aesthetic appeal as it doesn’t’ grow weeds or have grass encroaching the boarders which can reduce the size of the required fall zones for each piece of equipment. Poured in place also significantly reduces the use of herbicide use to deter plant growth within playgrounds. 
• The under layer of poured in place is comprised of recycled tires bound together by a polyurethane based product.  The tire rubber is put through a robust process to remove everything from the tire except the rubber which is cleaned and made into the pellets used in the base of the surfacing.  The top layer is comprised of fresh rubber product for the finish coat again bound together with a polyurethane product.  All of which has been tested and is safe for use in playgrounds.