PORTSMOUTH — It was just a little over a year ago when the nonprofit Four Hearts Foundation started fund-raising for a new-and-improved playground to be built on Turnpike Avenue.

Now that effort is nearing the finish line.

“We’re on our last kind of push for fund-raising,” said Kateri Chappell Buerman, who along with Laurel Handle Polselli started the Foundation in April 2022. 

Their dream is to build a playground that is bigger, safer, and all-inclusive of ages and abilities. The new playground will include zip-lines, handicapped-accessible structures for ages 0 to 5 and 5 to 12, swings, ramps, soft flooring to replace mulch, musical and play components throughout, seating and picnic tables and more.

The playground has been carefully curated with Megan O’Brien from O’Brien and Sons to be welcoming to children with special needs. One example is the “friendship swing,” which is available to all but will also serve as a therapy tool for children who struggle with eye contact and motion. 

The Town Council entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Foundation last year, which allowed the group to go forward with fund-raising so there will be no actual construction costs to taxpayers. The town will be inheriting the facility and will be responsible for its maintenance, however.

Through fund-raisers, grants and community donations, the Foundation has raised more than $500,000 and recently purchased the structures for the playground at a cost of just over $390,000. 

“As an organization, we wrote that check to the Town of Portsmouth because our MOU is that they are to purchase the equipment. We have given the town that,” Buerman said. 

The Foundation also has $141,000 to pay a certified playground builder to construct the facility, she said. 

Now it’s working on raising the needed funds for a soft, recycled, pour-in rubber flooring. That will cost $215,000, and the Foundation has about $50,000 toward that goal. The special flooring is “non-negotiable” and will make the playground more accessible, safer, and require less maintenance, Buerman said.

“That would replace the mulch that you would stereotypically see on a playground floor,” she said, adding that the rubber flooring makes it easier to push a wheelchair or stroller, and reduces injury because it’s soft and bouncy. Mulch often ends up in kids’ mouths as well, she said.

In addition, those big divots that typically form at the bottom of slides and get filled with rain — or ice, in the winter — will be non-existent, as the flooring is self-draining. “This will be allowed for it to be used all year, which is a benefit,” said Buerman.

The flooring, unlike mulch that needs to be weeded occasionally, will require no maintenance, she said. “We think there are a lot of added bonuses to it.”

The Foundation has added a track around the outside of the playground, which will also be of recycled rubber. It will be ideal for exercise, kids learning to ride a bike or a safe area to run, the Foundation says. 

Shooting for next spring

“We’re hoping for spring of 2024,” Buerman said of the targeted opening for the new playground, noting that the rubber flooring needs to be installed when it’s not too cold outside. “It’s sadly kind of whether-dependent on when that flooring can be put in.”

The Foundation is grateful for the “huge outpouring of love and support from the community,” she said, noting that children have gotten involved as well. “Kids have been doing lemonade stands for this. Some kids have been putting on their birthday invitations, ‘Donate to the playground instead of giving presents,'” she said.

The support is similar to how the community got behind a previous playground that was built at the same site in the ’80s — much of it by local volunteers, as opposed to a professional playground builder.

“Moms told us that they learned to use a skill saw there, or they planted the flowers,” she said. “We always wanted this to mimic that. Sadly, those rules got a little stricter from the ’80s, and rightfully so as we want to be safe. People can’t be part of the actual build, but I’m hoping people still feel like they’re part of it.”