The "New" Brandon's Village Playground!

Seventeen years ago my wife, Dina, and I had the privilege of facilitating the creation of Brandon's Village, a state-of-the-art universally accessible playground at Gates Canyon Park in Calabasas, CA. The playground - named after our son, Brandon, was designed to enable children with disabilities to access virtually all of the play equipment and participate in play together with children without disabilities. Over the years Dina and I, along with our son, Brandon - who has special needs - have spent many hours at Brandon's Village hosting events for children with and without disabilities, interacting with their parents and other members of the Calabasas and greater community.

A high point for us was observing the children engaging at the playground and thoroughly enjoying the experience. Another high point was the feedback that we received from the parents and other adult visitors about how incredible Brandon's Village was, and that it has become their favorite and their children's favorite playground.

The time has come for Brandon's Village to become renovated and updated with new equipment. Accordingly, the Calabasas Community Services Department engaged "Unlimited Play, Inc.", a non-profit organization that assists in designing all inclusive playgrounds" and "Play Power/Little Tikes" to propose the design and implementation of the new Brandon's Village Playground. Their proposed new playground is nothing short of the high standard that we would expect in Calabasas, and it includes the latest in universally accessible features, and a flagship climbing structure for youth with all abilities - called "The Hawk" - that will be unique to Brandon's Village and the only one of its kind in the California region.

The Calabasas City Council has very generously allocated more than $1.15 million to this project - bringing us within $125,000 of the total cost. (Coincidentally, the $125,000 is approximately the cost of "The Hawk".)

Since the opening of the original Brandon's Village Playground in 2006, many visitors have asked how they could support the playground. We are pleased to report that this is the opportunity and now is the time.

At this time we are reaching out to those who have previously expressed an interest in supporting Brandon's Village, residents of Calabasas, businesses in Calabasas and the greater community to support this project.

Collectively, our contributions will be a beautiful gift to the many children who regularly visit Brandon's Village, for many years to come.