The New Way to Play

Athens’ “WOW” Park (Now with Dragon!) Goes Cutting-Edge

originally published April 16, 2008

Athens is widely known for its avant-garde culture. The city that boasts a famous music scene, arts culture and creative environment added another cutting-edge venue to its list just a few years ago: the World of Wonder, an unconventional playground in Southeast Clarke Park that may even entice video game-obsessed pre-teens to venture outdoors.

The WOW park (as it’s known), located near the Whit Davis Road entrance of Southeast Clarke Park, consists of two main attractions: a castle and a dragon. The castle, which was completed in 2004, is the result of the work and dedication of more than 1,000 community volunteers. The dragon will be unveiled at a grand opening ceremony on Saturday, Apr. 19. A more conceptual play area, the dragon consists of a head and two mounds to represent the backbone and tail. Five “play-points” surround the dragon, where kids can swing, twirl or climb on each apparatus.

“This kind of creative play reduces stress,” says Amy Flurry, Athens mother of two and co-project coordinator for the dragon construction. “You see a certain-aged kid start to go inside to their PlayStations, but I believe that they are still interested in being outside. We wanted to give them something that would be interesting, but did not spell it all out - that’s more conceptual and encourages movement, fosters some kind of intrigue, and stimulates the imagination.”

Kyla Hastie, Flurry’s partner in the dragon construction, says her involvement with the WOW playground is an effort to support “No Child Left Inside,” a national movement that encourages children to play outside. “Parks aren’t just ‘nice.’ It’s about children’s health, and getting outside to play is an important public health strategy,” says Hastie. “We have a crisis in this country with Type II diabetes, obesity in children and prescription drugs for ADHD [Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder], all sky-rocketing in children, and research shows that getting outside can combat those things,” she says.

The idea for the WOW playground in Athens was conceived by a group of local mothers with elementary school-aged children who were interested in a unique, community-built playground that would appeal to kids of all ages. The group generated support for the park and began to research, fundraise, design, and oversee the construction of the World of Wonder.

Athens-Clarke County’s Department of Leisure Services offered the land for the playground, aided with the design, development and construction of the dragon, and will assume maintenance once the park is finished. Throughout the research stage, Athens children were heavily involved in brainstorming ideas for their future playground. A children’s committee was formed and submission boxes were placed in local elementary schools for kids to propose their own ideas for what the new park should look like. Flurry says the overwhelming majority of kids polled wanted to build a castle and dragon.

“We even gave the kids clay and asked, ‘What do you think the dragon should look like?’ We really tried to involve the children,” she says. Lars Hall, an 11-year-old student at the Athens Montessori School, ultimately drew the picture of the dragon used for the final design model.

During the construction and fundraising for the castle, the committee of community volunteers decided to split the WOW playground into two “manageable chunks,” says Hastie, and she and Flurry spearheaded phase two: the dragon. Hastie founded the Friends of Southeast Clarke Park, a non-profit organization to work in conjunction with the county to create and maintain innovative park areas in Southeast Clarke Park, including WOW, the Skatepark of Athens and Wiggly Dog Field.

The Friends of Southeast Clarke Park asked professional builders and community artists and designers to help build the dragon. Ollivier Bonamy, an industrial designer, committed to the project and worked on the dragon throughout the whole of its conceptual and construction stages. Mike McCoy, vice president of Industrial Mechanical, Inc. in Watkinsville, also devoted many of his days (plus heavy machinery) to the park. Major corporate sponsors also include Loco’s and Publix; and the Friends group is still raising funds for benches and other additions. Various Athens artists, such as sculptor and painter Stan Mullins, contributed to the park as well. Flurry says the willingness of these volunteers and the “can-do, creative attitude from the entire community” is the reason the playground exists today.

The beauty of the World of Wonder, Flurry says, is that “it doesn’t leave anyone out.” It’s open to the whole community, and even the older kids may put down their video games in order to come outside and play.

Elyse Beasley

WHAT: WOW Park Phase II Grand Opening
WHERE: Southeast Clarke Park
WHEN: Saturday, Apr. 19, 12-2 p.m.
HOW MUCH: FREE!