The idea for Project Playground began when a group of stay-at-home moms met at Creswell's downtown park, Harry Holt Memorial Park, one day in May of 2004. We lamented the condition of the park and noted its potential, agreeing that "somebody ought to do something about it." Well, we decided that the "somebody" was us.

Our goal is to provide Holt Park with safe, modern play equipment that will provide increased play opportunities for kids of all ages and all abilities. There is no other public playground in our small, rural community. Holt Park is a lovely park with plenty of potential, but it needs help. The existing equipment is about 50 years old and showing its age, and surfacing materials are nowhere near modern safety standards. Younger children find few play opportunities here, and nothing is accessible to children with physical disabilities.

We can do better for our growing community.

We believe that new, safer, more challenging equipment will attract more families to Holt Park, providing opportunities for both children and adults to interact with others in the community.

We had to consider overall cost, safety issues, accessibility, maintenance, security, longevity, warranties, space concerns and special events. We consulted with several companies and compared equipment and prices. We took field trips and talked to playground installers. We considered home-built equipment, recycled plastic equipment, and wood. We tried to minimize the overall footprint of the equipment and position it in a logical way.