PORTLAND, Ore. — The nonprofit Harper's Playground started as a goal of making play accessible for all and has grown into a worldwide movement of inclusion. Its most recent project to date is in Washington.
“Inclusive is the goal, really,” said Cody Goldberg, the nonprofit's founder. “It’s like the North Star.”
It’s the dream held by Goldberg and his wife April, who in 2010 realized their daughter Harper, couldn’t use the playground in their North Portland neighborhood.
“Typical playgrounds with the wood chips don't work for kids who use wheels to get around, and that's what kicked all of this off,” recalled Goldberg.
Thus, the nonprofit was born, established to create radically inclusive playgrounds, beginning with Portland’s Arbor Lodge Park.
“When we started Harper's Playground, Harper was 4, and [her younger sister] Lennon was 1,” Goldberg said.
Harper is now 18, Lennon now 15, and as the girls grew, so did the mission.
“We can trace our DNA to 19 playground projects throughout the world. The furthest away from here is in Tokyo, Japan,” Goldberg said.
The biggest project to date is Marshall Park in Vancouver, which held its grand opening this September.
"Six years, $4.3 million: This is by far the largest and most complicated project we've ever taken on,” Goldberg said.
The park is complete with bronze sculptures and hand-crafted models that each tell a story, a sand area called “Lennon’s Land,” and of course, the one-of-a-kind “Harper’s Hill.”
“All the pieces make a kid's experience here unique each time,” Goldberg said.
Harper’s Playground also helps cities around the world create their own inclusive playgrounds. The next projects are designing two spaces in Bothell, Washington, and one at Foot Soldiers Park in Selma, Alabama, in honor of the Civil Rights Movement. The John R. Lewis Memorial is set to open in 2025, marking the 60th anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery March for Voting Rights.
For Goldberg, it’s surreal to think about. After all, it’s taken a lot of time, growth and tears to get here.
But Harper’s Playground has also brought the Goldberg family immense joy and gifted them with lifelong relationships.
“I think I'm most proud of all the friendships,” he said. “The mission is so pure; it attracts some really amazing people.”
"I hope we go out of business knowing that the world is a much more inclusive place for everybody," Goldberg concluded.