Playgrounds and play equipment are an important and highly visible church investment. When done properly, they frequently serve as an attractive and fun focal point for positive social interaction between children and adults of all ages.

Selecting and installing commercial playground equipment can, at times, be an intimidating and confusing challenge, but getting the answers to a handful of critical questions at the outset can help make the entire buying process smoother and less stressful for everyone involved. Ultimately, this results in happy kids and peace of mind.

Who Is Playing?
Commercial play structures are typically designed for children 2 to 5 years old, or 5 to 12 years old. Some manufacturers market play equipment designed to accommodate both age groups on a single structure. However, the Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) recommends installing separate structures designed to meet the unique needs of each age group. Many community playgrounds feature separate structures for each age group as a way of helping to ensure safe and appropriate play, and churches should carefully consider following this practice.

Clearly identifying which age group you are building for will help you focus your design decisions appropriately, and, if you're building for both age groups, you will need to consider appropriate structures for both in your final design.

Does Everyone Have Access?
Accessibility for children of all abilities is a important factor in playground design, and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Guidelines for Play Areas reflect the general standards of the ADA: to give individuals with disabilities the opportunity for participation in everyday civic life.

In the case of the play area guidelines, the goal is to bring children (and grownups) of all abilities into the center of play in the playground environment. Some manufacturers make inclusion much easier by factoring ADA guidelines into all of their play structure designs, and many can even assist you with making your entire playground site ADA compliant. Seeking out such a manufacturer early in your decision process can help ensure that your entire playground is fully ADA compliant.

Regardless of age or physical ability, however, children frequently alternate between physically active play and more quiet social play. Thoughtfully designed structures allow for both types of play while enabling children to move fluidly between the two. Active play can be further enhanced by play events that encourage group participation and collaboration vs. individual play. Some manufacturers offer a wide variety of activities that promote collaboration, even in the context of competition.

Keep these various modes of play in mind when assessing play structures and manufacturers and your chances of building a hit will go up dramatically.

How Safe Is It?
A small amount of perceived danger is part of what makes play structures fun, and while no play structure can ever be guaranteed to be 100 percent safe, playground safety has made great positive strides in recent years with little resulting sacrifice in overall play value.

The International Play Equipment Manufacturers Association (IPEMA), www.ipema.org, is an excellent source for information on playground safety and standards and provides independent certification of compliance with federal safety standards. Not all commercial playground equipment manufacturers are IPEMA-certified, but purchasing from an IPEMA-certified manufacturer can go a long way toward your peace of mind once the kids begin climbing on your chosen structures.

Safety, however, is about more than just preventing accidents on the playground. Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) is known to contain carcinogenic material that can present health risks throughout its lifecycle, from manufacturing through use and disposal. PVC coatings are found on many components on the majority of commercial playground structures sold in the United States. PVC poses the greatest risk to children as a coating when it is burned as a result of vandalism, with some of the PVC transforming, in part, into highly toxic dioxin and PCBs.

Specifying no use of PVC in your playground not only benefits your kids today, but can help eventually move the entire playground industry toward using safer plastics. This presents an excellent opportunity for churches to lead through their purchasing habits.

How Is the Equipment Manufactured?
Caring for children and thoughtful stewardship of the earth go hand in hand. As a result, the commercial playground industry grows greener every year, but many manufacturers not only continue to use PVC even though safer material is readily available, they also continue to use non-recycled materials when equal or superior recycled materials are available and used widely by the greenest playground companies.

Many manufacturers claim to use recycled content, but if you request specifics, you may see a wide disparity in the actual amount of recycled material used. For example, ask for detailed breakdowns of recycled content by weight and compare manufacturers side by side. Also, seek out equipment made from post consumer waste, which diverts source material from landfills. And, ask whether or not the structures themselves are recyclable; after all, even the toughest play structures will eventually wear out.

Purchasing from companies that maximize the use of recycled and earth-friendly materials can make a big difference today and for the world that our children will eventually inherit. Leading companies recognize this fact and run their businesses accordingly.

Where to Start?
A reputable commercial playground manufacturer should be able to satisfy all of your design requirements while guiding you through the process of building a playground that makes the most of your site and budget, and minimizes total environmental impact.

In the end, this should leave you and your church feeling confident that you have created an enduring place for kids of all ages to play and socialize for years and years to come, and one that treads lightly on the planet.

Matt Haugh is director of sales and marketing for BigToys, Inc., based in
Olympia, Washington, www.bigtoys.com.

Product Roundup

EveryBODY Plays Program Guide from GameTime
GameTime believes that everyone has the right to play, regardless of age or ability, and that everyone should play together. That was the motivation behind the development of their 7 Principals of Inclusive Design, used as the framework for their EveryBODY Plays Program Guide. The EveryBODY Plays Program Guide was developed to serve as an educational resource for groups that are planning, revitalizing, and/or building playgrounds. This guide offers educational materials that help people understand the value of and necessity for inclusive, universally designed outdoor play environments for people of all abilities.
www.gametime.com

Grounds For Play's Adventures in Growing
Perfect for the "under two" crowd, the varied physical activities of the Adventures in Growing series develop a wide range of physical skills and stimulate active play. The high sidewalls and narrow slide bed allow even the youngest users to safely enjoy sliding. With multiple 2-sided, 3-sided, or 4-sided combinations available, the Adventure Tower, Adventure Challenge, Alpine Adventure, and slide fit the needs of your crawlers, climbers, steppers, and sliders. You can even link multiple units together for more complex play.
www.groundsforplay.com/infantstructure

Play It Safe Enterprises
Play It Safe Enterprises represents many fine product lines in the park and recreation industry. They offer complete site planning, play system design and sales, installation of equipment, and all the services required to complete an exciting and safe environment. Their collective years of experience in the park and recreation industry along with their design abilities and certified install crews enable them to provide the necessary ingredients to create a successful project. Play It Safe has many representatives throughout Florida and Georgia who are available to assist you with quality products and competitive pricing.
www.playitsafeflorida.com

Kidstuff Playsystems
Kidstuff Playsystems has been providing top-quality playground equipment since it was started in 1982. Their IPEMA certification assures that the equipment will stand up to enormous use and abuse. It also means that the equipment meets all the latest safety standards. Their ISO certification assures that the equipment is built to a set of highly exacting quality standards. Kidstuff will install what they make and do the safety surfacing as well, taking the pain out of playground purchasing. 
www.kidstuffplaysystems.com

Intensity from BCI Burke
BCI Burke's Intensity is an innovative play complex is designed to address the ever-alarming rate of obesity and inactivity in children. Intensity was developed to counteract the detrimental effects of inactivity targeted specifically for the 5 to 12-plus age group.  Rather than traditional slides, decks and climbers, Intensity components are more fitness-oriented and challenging to include grids of rope to work muscles whether climbing up or down, spinners that promote flexibility and core torso strengthening, discs that call for balance and agility or a glider that promotes coordination. 
www.bciburke.com

Play & Park Structures Music Makers
Children love music, and they will love Play & Park Structures Music Makers. Music Makers encourages socialization and imagination as children work together to play their favorite tune. Each order of Music Makers components comes with standards-based music activity cards to be used outdoors on the playground. Each activity teaches children about a different aspect of music, including tone, rhythm, and much more. Physical activity is incorporated into each card with ideas to encourage creative movement.
www.playandpark.com

SofTILE from Sof Surfaces
SofTILE has been developed, engineered, and thoroughly tested to offer superior fall protection for any play environment. SofTILE features a unique 10-year fall protection guarantee. Their patented KrosLOCK edge is an exclusive SofTILE design feature. Each safety tile has a built-in locking mechanism that attaches to the adjacent tile, providing a unitary surface that is secure and vandal resistant. Contact them for a free interactive guide to safety surfacing available on CD.
www.sofsurfaces.com

Playland
Playland International is a leading manufacturer of commercial playground equipment. As part of Superior International, the company offers Playland commercial playgrounds, Superior Shade structures, SII Steel Structures, Play On Surfacing, Webcoat Site Amenities, and Childworks products. The company has become the one-stop shop for all of your playground needs.
www.Playland-inc.com

Evos by Landscape Structures
Kids can't resist the new shape of play—Evos—where the spherical design provides a completely new play experience for kids of all ages. Evos offers endless physical, mental and creative challenges for kids as they navigate through its unique play components. With 25 versatile Evos components to choose from—and more on the way—this playsystem is great for phased projects. Start with four arches, a few of your favorite components and keep adding to your Evos as space or budget allows.
www.playlsi.com