The Stroum Jewish Community Center formally kicked of its Community Playground Project last Thursday with the unveiling of a rebuild design for its Early Childhood Services Community playground.

Barry Segal of the nationally recognized playground design firm Leather and Associates spent the day with JCC Early Childhood Services students to engage in discussion, find out what they wanted to have in a playground and incorporate their ideas into his preliminary design, which was then unveiled at an evening party. The party included presentations from the students followed by the official unveiling.

Children had built out their ideas with clay, building blocks and drawings. There were requests for castles, a candy store, a hot tub and volcanoes. One child wanted an elephant slide with the trunk as the slide.

“Basically these kind of far-out ideas that only a child would propose, he actually incorporated into his initial design,” said parent Rachel Schwartz. “The kids felt like it was something they truly were a part of.”

Leather and Associates’ designs have been featured in Smithsonian Magazine, Readers Digest and on Sesame Street.

The construction of the playground will involve the children as well.