Manassas

Kid-Designed Playground Unveiled in Manassas’ Fairmont Park

By Caitlyn Meisner

Volunteers from the community, along with staff and volunteers from Prince William County Parks and Recreation, KABOOM! and Amazon Web Services InCommunities pose for a group photo to celebrate the completion of the playground build at Fairmont Park. [Photo by Tavan Smith]
The newly designed and built playground at Fairmont Park is now open, and it now holds more meaning than ever.

Prince William County Parks and Recreation partnered with Amazon Web Services InCommunites, a sector of the cloud-based service that helps local communities, and KABOOM!, a national nonprofit dedicated to ending playspace inequity, to make the new Fairmont Park playground possible.

The playground was designed by 30 children from Prince William County who shared drawings of their dream space. Demolition on the existing playground started in early October, and the playground was just recently completed following a week-long effort by volunteers to construct the new space.

Volunteers were needed to make the construction of the new Fairmont Park playground possible. [Photo by Prince William County Parks & Recreation via Facebook]
“We’re excited to bring this brand new, community-built playground to Fairmont Park, thanks to our partnership with KABOOM! and support from Amazon Web Services,” Seth Hendler-Voss, director of Prince William County Parks and Recreation, said. “We know that play is an integral part of healthy childhood development and so the fact that this playground was designed with direct input from the children that will be using it makes it an even more special playspace for the community.”

More than 240 volunteers assisted from Oct. 23 through Saturday to make sure Fairmont Park was completed and ready for use by local children.

“We’re proud to amplify the efforts of organizations like Prince William County Parks and Recreation and KABOOM! to create welcoming spaces where children and families from all backgrounds and abilities can play and thrive,” Sarah Georgiades, head of InCommunities, Americas at AWS, said. “The new playspace at Fairmont Park is a testament to what we can achieve together, and we’re excited to continue working alongside the Prince William County community to drive positive change.”

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