HARLINGEN — For Dominik Torres, the new playground is a dream come true.
For about a year, he’s helped pave the way for a $1.3 million project to build three playgrounds for special needs children.
Yesterday, Dominik and his mother Velma Torres were all smiles as they grabbed shovels and ceremoniously helped break ground on a $500,000 project to build an all-inclusive playground at Lon C. Hill Park.
As part of the plan, local leaders also will build the playgrounds at Pendleton and Victor parks.
“This is going to be awesome,” said Velma Torres, whose son was 5 when he suffered a stroke that left him partly paralyzed.
The sprawling all-inclusive playgrounds will be the first in the Rio Grande Valley.
“He likes to go to parks and he gets excited seeing the kids swinging themselves,” Velma said about her son. “So we just sit there and watch because he can’t do anything.”
That all will change with these new all inclusive facilities.
Dominik will be able to participate too – not just watch from the sidelines.
The parks will be the first in the United States to feature Swedish-made merry-go-rounds known as Spinmee Inclusive Roundabouts, said Javier Mendez, the city’s parks director.
A partnership between the city and the Harlingen school district will fund and build playgrounds at Pendleton and Victor parks.
Meanwhile, the Valley Baptist Legacy Foundation, Harlingen Sunburst Rotary Club and banker Rollins Koppel helped fund the playground at Lon C. Hill Park, the first step toward turning it a “destination park.”
As part of the overall project, Sunburst Rotary will provide $8,000 to build swings for special needs children at the three parks, said Tim Elliott, the club’s president.
Velma is a member of the Sunburst Rotary Club and she along with Elliott have made a passionate plea and effort to have these facilities for people like Dominik.
“It really is another great day for the city of Harlingen because of the partnerships represented here and the example this playground represents — working together,” Mayor Chris Boswell told a small audience at the park. “As we build a playground for all children, as a city we are working together.”
The playground will be named the Amalie L. “Amy” Koppel Memorial Playground, for Koppel’s late wife, who worked as a Harlingen school teacher.
“This is wonderful,” Koppel told the audience. “Kids were her passion. I never visualized anything like this.”
The city and school district split the $800,000 cost of building playgrounds at Pendleton and Victor parks.
“The children of this community wait anxiously for adults to get it right — and today the adults got it right,” Harlingen schools Superintendent Arturo Cavazos said.
In 2015, voters approved a 10-cent property tax increase allowing the school district to build the two playgrounds.
The district plans to use the playground as a classroom for field trips to help special needs students develop social skills and build motor and sensory skills.
“This playground will serve all of Harlingen and other communities’ children and be a place where children can all come together and have fun,” Cavazos said. “At the end of the day, children look to us to ensure they have bright futures.”
The playground will become a symbol of the community, said Adele Clinton-Solis, chairwoman of the city’s parks advisory board.
“This is a symbol of the type of community we live in — the type of community that brings people together and knocks down barriers,” Clinton-Solis said. “Every single child deserves a safe place to play.”
City Manager Dan Serna said he’s proposing a $6 million project to turn Lon C. Hill Park into a regional attraction.
The plan calls for the transformation of Harlingen Field, the longtime home of the defunct Rio Grande Valley WhiteWings, into a large concert venue.
The park also would feature an amphitheater, pavilions, a lighted walking trail and a children’s museum doubling as a venue to exhibit local artists’ works.
“It will be a destination park,” Serna told the audience. “This playground is just the beginning. This park will see additional renovations.”
