Valley’s first fully inclusive park catered to children with special needs opening soon

PALMER — Local families with children with special needs will soon have a new playground area designed especially for them.

The Palmer Family Park is currently being constructed with an expected grand opening by the end of the month. When completed, this specialized recreational play area will be an all-inclusive experience for children of all abilities.

"So everybody gets to play together," Palmer Family Church pastor Joe Parreira said.

Parreira said the Palmer Family Church embarked on this massive undertaking over two years ago. He said the ultimate goal is to support local families that have children with special needs with a safe and all-encompassing community asset.

“It creates a sense of normalcy," Parreira said. “It just knocks down those barriers so we're just excited about that.”

According to Parreira, the Palmer Family Park will feature a playground with a variety of equipment catered to children with wheelchairs and other specific needs, opening up a world of possibilities never seen before, not just in the Mat-Su Valley but the surrounding state as well. Parreira said this will be the first fully accessible playground in Alaska. He said that he hopes it will inspire locals in other areas to adapt similar capabilities to new or existing facilities so this type of all-inclusive experience becomes the norm.

“Hopefully, it just becomes just another park," Parreira said.

The park will take up an approximate 9,000-square-foot radius with various features surrounding the playground, including picnic tables, adaptive bathrooms suitable for those with disabilities, and a pavilion that can be used for birthday parties and other events. He noted that they also plan to widen the church parking lot to accommodate the impending influx of visitors.

“We tried to consider all the dynamics," Parreira said.

Parreira said the playground will be fully enclosed which will help families with children prone to running off.

“This provides a bit of that safety,” Parreira said.

The new park will not only be helpful for children with special needs but also for local grandparents looking for a safe and accessible area to play with their grandchildren. Parreira said that about forty percent of children are being raised by their grandparents so there’s a large need in that sector as well. He said that it’s an extremely exciting project and he can’t wait to see the first wave of visitors enjoying the park.

“It makes me emotional,” Parreira said. “It's just a great community buy-in.”

The Palmer Family Chuch is working with Tyler Greenstreet of Tectonic Land Solutions to construct the new park. He said that funding for the project was made possible by a variety of grants and local sponsors.

“It really is a community project,” Parreira said.

The public is invited to help construct the park during a community build day. Parreira said they had to postpone the original date for the build day and they have a tentative date set for July 7. He encourages anyone interested in helping out to follow them on social media for updates.

“We've had a good response from local people that are willing to do it," Parreira said.

The Palmer Family Park will be free to access and open to the public. Parreira said they're still finalizing the set hours but they plan to keep it open from morning to night throughout the week. He said they've received a lot of positive feedback from local parents that are thrilled to utilize the new park.

"I think it's going to be the talk of the town for a while," Parreira said.

For more information, call 907-746-0252 or visit the Palmer Family Church of the Nazarene Facebook page.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman reporter Jacob Mann at jacob.mann@frontiersman.com