Brooks’ Playground — an inclusive playground — will open in Cleveland Park in 2024. A local family’s experience and support helped make it happen. Named after four-year-old Greenvillian Brooks Foster, the playground will feature accessible equipment so everyone has a place to play.

Paul and Reagin Foster — Brooks’ parents who donated ~$800,000+ to the project — say they’ve struggled to find places to play in Greenville with the necessary amenities for their daughter who has Pontine Tegmental Cap Dysplasia (a rare neurological syndrome), so they got to work on developing a space that met their needs + could be enjoyed by all children.

“Our vision was a place where Brooks could play outside with her siblings and friends,” Reagin explains. “A play area with equipment and resources that meet the needs of children with a diverse range of disabilities, both visible and non-visible, and a fun, inclusive, and sensory-rich environment where ALL kids can develop critical physical, social and emotional skills.”

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The playground has been specially -designed to consider kids from six months to 13-years-old with differences and provide ways for them to be active:

Accessible playground equipment
Shade structures
A shelter with picnic tables
A new restroom building
700 ft. of new sidewalk to improve the park’s accessible connectivity

City Council approved the name Brooks’ Playground at its meeting on Monday, Oct. 23. They also outlined a $3 million budget for the project: ~$200,000 will come from the city’s NSTEP Capital Improvement Funds (read: The Neighborhood Sidewalk Targeted Expansion Program) + ~$2 million will come from the Capital Improvements Fund.