Playground to be re-opened with ribbon cutting

Possibility Playground in Port Washington’s Upper Lake Park will be reopened during a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 1 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 3.

The event comes after the Friends of Possibility Playground marked the 10th anniversary of the playground designed to be accessible to children of all abilities with a $250,000 expansion completed in September that added features such as a towering whimsical sea monster named Nessie and a merry-go-round that is accessible to people in wheelchairs.

Other additions include a child-size replica of the bandshell in the city’s nearby Veterans Park and a stainless steal slide designed to reduce static for children with cochlear implants topped with a tree house.

The finishing touch was a new poured-in-place rubber surface.

“We can’t wait to see the smiles on the children’s faces when they explore all the wonderful new additions,” Mardy McGarry, a retired special education teacher who is one of the playground’s founding organizers, said.

Built by volunteers in 2008, the football-field-size playground was the first community-built playground for children of all abilities in southeastern Wisconsin. Although the recent expansion was a significantly smaller project, more than 400 volunteers participated.