Channel your inner Luke Skywalker or Han Solo, your Princess Leia or Chewbacca and beam yourself down to Tower Park in Peoria Heights this coming Saturday as St. Thomas Catholic Grade School, in conjunction with the Village of Peoria Heights, hosts a fundraiser for an accessible-to-all playground on that site.
“Together We Play ... in Space” will take place from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday, July 17 at Tower Park, 4901 N. Prospect Road in the Heights.
Come dressed as your favorite “Star Wars” character and enjoy games, food and Tower rides and play to win prizes, with the Heights Police Department also auctioning off movie memorabilia.
It’s $1 per ticket to participate in the activities and $15 per individual, $25 per family for an unlimited participation pass.
The proceeds are going to a great cause, the “Together We Play Accessible Playground,” which has students at St. Thomas in the Heights partnering with Advocates for Access to construct a playground at Tower Park that would be truly open to children of all abilities and mobilities.
The proposal was a finalist for the Build Peoria grant and came up just short in recent voting. The concept was born out of the FIRST LEGO League Challenge, an international competition that asks teams of fourth through eighth graders to identify a real- world challenge and come up with a solution. Through their research, St. Thomas students had discovered that the Peoria area has more than 14,000 residents living with disabilities who could benefit from having a park that would be far easier for them to use. That includes not only kids who would play at the park but the parents and grandparents with disabilities who might bring them.
The students have put together a budget for the park of $100,000, which they hope to raise through donations and fundraisers like this one. The playground would have a slightly larger footprint than the current one. If funding in excess of the goal is achieved, priority would be given to additions to the plan that would be likely to increase engagement among those with hearing, walking and/or sight impairments.
In the words of the Together We Play team, “If we don’t get to meet children in wheelchairs, or kids with impairments, then we will never learn how to act around them.” In short, an “inclusive playgrounds help lay the groundwork for a truly inclusive society.”
“We are proud to work with the kids at St. Thomas to help make this playground a reality,” said Peoria Heights Mayor Mike Phelan and Village Trustee Brandon Wisenburg in a joint statement. “The goal here could not be any more laudable, the need for this kind of park is real, and we strongly encourage the good people of Peoria Heights and beyond to come out this Saturday, have loads of fun, and getbehind this effort.”
Also joining in the festivities this weekend will be members of the fan organizations 501st Legion, Mandalorian Mercs, Rebel Legion, and The Dark Empire.