Chris Cain would tell you, he had the easy part.

Designing KidsUp! The Next Generation of Play, the spectacular, super-inclusive new playground at Battle Point Park, didn’t take much more than brainstorming with parents and suggesting what might go where. Then he stood back and watched.   

“My role was really just to put ideas on paper, and get it spatially organized,” says Cain, a landscape architect with Bainbridge Island’s Studio Hanson Roberts. “Normally when we do a design project, it takes months of planning, there’s packages of drawings to deliver… I sat in on meetings and did some sketches here and there.”

Well, there was a little more to it than that. But when the new playground opens on Sept. 4, kids of all ages and abilities will find a veritable wonderland of sight, sound, sensation and even scent in the wildflower and herb gardens, play features so rich and a layout so open and welcoming – and a one-of-a-kind Ferry Boat as big as a child’s imagination. 

Perhaps just credit the collective inspiration of a group of parent volunteers, the generosity of several hundred donors, sponsors and grantors, and a Park District construction team that brought not just craftsmanship but added its own creative touches along the way. 

“The Park District has such talent under one roof, all I really have to do is say, ‘put ‘X’ here,’ and they go build it,” Cain says, “‘we’re keeping this structure, connect it to Point B and it has to have a 5 percent slope,’ and they figure it out.”

“It’s a treasure to be able to work like that.”

IT WAS CLEAR BY 2018, if you looked close enough, that the KidsUp! Playground was falling apart. Built in 2001 and beloved by several generations of island kids and families, the forest of logs that formed the play structures was badly decayed from exposure to Northwest elements. The wood was so rotted in places, you couldn’t punch in enough screws to keep it together. 

Playground design had come a long way in those years, too. Inclusion and accessibility were now paramount, and creating “universal” designs so that all kids could share a common play experience, regardless of mobility or development. 

While bittersweet, the demise of KidsUp! 1.0 would open the door for a reimagined playground for a new generation of play. 

The Park District convened a group of volunteer parents in early 2018 to steer a new playground concept. Cain, who’d previously worked with the district on the Owen’s and Schel Chelb playgrounds, offered his services pro bono to run workshops and help “vision” the possibilities. His role: project “referee,” reality-checking the wilder ideas – volunteers may not “design” playgrounds so much as “dream” them up – while balancing safety with high playability. 

The Bainbridge Island Parks Foundation signed on for what would be its largest single fundraising campaign to that point, $600,000 over a projected three years. The Foundation was buoyed by the success of Owen’s Playground at Rotary Park, completed in 2015 as the island’s first accessible playground. 

“We came in with enthusiasm and a bit of trepidation, given all of the love that built the original KidsUp!, and unawareness about its deteriorating condition,” recalls Barb Trafton, then the Foundation’s executive director. “We were encouraged by the early, extraordinary support from a few island families, and the enthusiasm of the KidsUp! committee. We knew the Park District would bring excellent talent to build the new playground.” 

Rotary Club of Bainbridge Island was an early supporter, with a foundational $50,000 matching grant to spur private gifts. A sponsorship catalog gave donors the chance to attach their names to specific play elements like swings, slides, spinners, and even climbable Orca whales.  

The KidsUp! castle towers were rebuilt on sturdier footings, cementing ties to the original playground for continuity and reference. But the centerpiece would be something altogether new, in fact never before seen: a giant play structure in the shape of a Puget Sound ferry. The boat would be specially designed and fabricated by play equipment supplier Landscape Structures, Inc., and one of a kind. 

That was the hook, the feature that would drive the whole campaign. 

As Cain says, “You don’t just open a catalog and buy a ferry.”

NOT THAT LETTING GO OF THE FIRST KIDSUP! WOULD BE EASY. Keri Russo and her family grew deeply attached  to the playground even before they moved to Bainbridge in late 2018. Every visit to the island to that point meant a trip to Battle Point Park and a romp at KidsUp! They even looked at houses in the neighborhood. 

She could imagine how families whose kids had grown up with the first playground felt. 

“I totally understand, and it was hard,” Russo says. “I literally came in and started working on the committee before I even started getting mail here. Being a newbie to the island and trying to convince people the new playground was going to be good, that was a challenge.”  

The committee moved on from the original “fort” theme to one that defines the island itself – water, and Puget Sound – and the ideas flowed. A pirate ship play structure was considered, but wound up at Fay Bainbridge Park and didn’t feel right anyway. When the ferry came up, both durable and doable, that settled it. 

The committee polled the community about what other features they’d like to see. Stephanie Page recalls an Earth Day exercise at Montessori Country School, where the students were asked to choose among a smorgasbord of swings, slides and climbers.  

“For some reason, every kid at our school wanted to spin,” she says. “So I knew there had to be a spinner.” 

For the next two years, the committee volunteers found imaginative ways to raise funds alongside the Parks Foundation. Concert picnics and fire pit “experience” auctions. A beach-and-cocktail party at a south-end waterfront estate. A hot dog stand. An afternoon of arcade fun at a world-class pinball collection, hosted by committee member Jana MacCulloch and husband Todd.  

Even in the darkest days of the pandemic, they found ways to keep interest high. A month-long Code Breakers Treasure Hunt at Battle Point in fall 2020 gave kids and parents what they needed most: relief from cabin fever through a trip to the park. 

“It wasn’t even for the money, but it had the most traction,” Page says, “and that meant we were touching people with kids who needed to go out and play.”

Some doubts persisted, perhaps because of the project’s ambitious scale. Page recalls working a summer concert where the skepticism was point blank. 

“We had fliers circulating, and I heard parents saying, ‘this playground is never going to happen,’” she says. “I was like, What? People are saying that? Of course it’s going to happen! But you almost need to expect that. It just made me dig in a little bit more.”

The campaign fundraising “thermometer” at the KidsUp! entrance inched upward all the while. 

The committee found one more way to honor the original playground. A virtual social gathering last year brought in KidsUp! supporters from 20 years ago, for an evening of memories of the first community playground build. That group took on a fundraiser of its own, sponsoring a ferry boat wheelhouse in the name of “KidsUp! Founders & Friends.”  

Russo sensed a real sea change when the old play structures finally came down. 

“At that point,” she says, “it was, ‘how soon will it be done?’’’ 

The campaign motto became: “We Can’t Wait to Play.” 

PLAY CONTINUED AT KIDSUP! THROUGH THE END OF 2020, as playground pieces were peeled away, many original artworks salvaged and the remaining pilings finally razed. Then the Park District waited out COVID and a remarkably soggy winter. 

Serious earthwork began in spring, installing the extensive system of irrigation and drainage that would keep the new playground’s wildflower gardens fresh in summer, and the play areas dry and playable in winter.  

The Ferry Boat showed up in a semi-truck in pieces – thousands upon thousands of them, when you count the fasteners – along with all the new play equipment. The construction team poured new concrete paths and plazas and massaged each element into place, working around legacy trees and adjusting the layout to fit the land. 

Cain and a third-party “safety guru” periodically checked in to monitor progress and ensure the finished playground would meet the accessibility standards so key to its concept and design.

In spring, the Park District Board committed sufficient dollars to keep the project rolling toward completion this year, even if private fundraising lagged behind construction. That gave the Parks Foundation time to close out the campaign through late sponsorships and gifts, to fully fund its commitment and then some. A hefty, 11th-hour gift secured a key accessibility feature.   

The budding playground became its own best advertisement, as countless park visitors watched the ferry boat take shape in real time. 

“It was a big number, but the community support we got was awesome,” says Lisa Sheffer, the Foundation’s development director. “Everyone knew they were going to see an amazing playground at the end.”

One by one, artworks from the original playground were reintroduced – a bronze frog here, a terra cotta racoon there, the fish ladder sculptures affixed to the castle towers, nods to the playground of old. Indianola artist David Franklin returned to freshen up his Northwest native-styled cedar works, another familiar visual tie. 

The Parks construction team added its own touches along the way, in function and form. 

The grand, laminated archway spanning the Rotary Beach play area, and peaked, timber-frame pier roof? That was the Parks team’s work. The colorful Battle Point tableau cladding the We-Go-Round spinner? Parks team. The restored marimbas from the old playground? Parks team. The whimsical “Octopus vs. Mercedes” sculpture, redolent of Seattle’s Fremont Troll yet hyperlocal to Bainbridge? Parks team. 

“It’s what we do,” says the Park District’s project coordinator and contributing artist Doug Slinglerland, deflecting the attention. 

Cain says, give credit where it’s due. 

“We never had design discussions about details like those,” he says, “and that’s the sparkle that they are able to add in house that makes the project sing. They’ve made it sing, for sure.

“It is spectacular.”  

IN MID-AUGUST, ABOUT THREE YEARS AFTER THEIR FIRST WORKSHOPS, the core members of the KidsUp! steering committee – Page, Russo, MacCulloch and chair Curt Thomas – gathered at Battle Point to see the almost-finished playground firsthand.

The gardens, seeded by volunteers during the hottest July on record, were full and flowering beyond all reason. About all that remained to be added was the extensive soft-surfacing, another key accessibility feature that will let tumbling kids bounce right back up to play some more. 

“From rotten wood, to this,” Thomas said, succinctly. “I can’t wait to see the reactions. Just seeing it in person after so many years of looking at it on paper, it’s unreal.” 

MacCulloch noted that most of those early sketches held up, the vision from the first workshops translating straight to the physical playground.

“It’s just come together beautifully,” she said. “The Park District has done an amazing job.” 

Adds Russo: “If it was just the ferry, or just the ferry and 50 percent of what’s here, it wouldn’t be as fabulous. It’s everything. It’s not just a brand new playground that you order from a catalog and plunk down and say, ‘there you go’ and walk away. It just feels like the Park District put a lot of love in it, and care, and respect for the island and its history – all of it.”

And given good value, Chris Cain says, for the generous community that made it possible. He says it would be tough to replicate what KidsUp! The Next Generation of Play has achieved in scale, in accessibility, in creative flourish and sheer wonder. 

“If someone else were to build what the Park District has done here in-house, we’re talking a million dollars plus,” he says. “They did this for half the cost by doing it in-house. It’s an absolute steal.”  

Now come the kids – all ages, all abilities, always – for the payoff. Step back and watch. 

IT’S TIME TO PLAY: KidsUp! The Next Generation of Play opens Saturday, Sept. 4 at Battle Point Park, 11299 Arrow Point Drive. A formal dedication is at 10 a.m., with a Trike Track Parade at 10:30, music and food trucks for a day of fun for families and kids of all ages and abilities. The event is sponsored by Play Creations and Landscape Structures, Inc. Information: www.biparks.org. 

Please note: The Governor’s Office and the Department of Health strongly recommend individuals wear masks in crowded outdoor settings regardless of vaccination status.