The variety of pieces at WonderSpace in Grant County gives kids the flexibility to arrange and combines the pieces however they want. Photo by Darin Jordan
WonderSpace received a grant of one million and a quarter dollars from the Lilly Endowment that they will use to help kids burn energy, develop socially and even process grief through movement and play.
Snowy, rainy, slushy or bitterly cold weather can make it difficult to find opportunities for kids to move and be active. WonderSpace is a non-profit designed with those problems in mind as it tries to provide active space to kids in Grant County.
In 2019, Stephanie Freemyer and Angie Leffler started WonderSpace PLAY as a place of indoor developmental play. It is the only place like it in Grant County. Their mission statement is “aim to improve the physical, social, mental and physical health of kids through play.”
They currently use space in College Wesleyan Church and have several sets of play equipment that they have designed. Freemyer, the director, called the equipment “loose parts play.” Kids can arrange the different parts into various combinations for a variety of play experiences to stimulate their creativity as they play and interact.
Motor skills and creativity aren’t the only areas of growth. WonderSpace is also a place where kids can develop socially and can be a good connection point for the parents. In addition to volunteers watching the kids play, there is a responsible adult for every household that comes in. They often play with the kids and take the time to connect with other adults.
“The nice thing is since we made friends here, we can just call those people up and say ‘hey, let’s go to the park!’” said Amy Robinette, a mother who regularly brings her daughter to WonderSpace. She was talking with another mother who she met at WonderSpace and said that many of her friends are actually people she has met there.
One of the differences that Robinette also pointed out was that in addition to being local, WonderSpace is free. Parents have to sign a liability waiver, and then they can get a little bar code to sign in the kids when they come, which helps WonderSpace count how many children play in the facility.
Currently, WonderSpace PLAY is open in that church building during the winter, one Saturday a month, and every Tuesday. Freemyer has plans to expand.
Recently, WonderSpace received a grant from the Lilly Endowment for one and a quarter million dollars. Freemyer laid out several ways the money can be invested.
Freemyer is looking for ways to expands the program and wants to find more options for locations around Grant County, which would be open on different days and times of the week, allowing more people to come.
Freemyer said she would like to develop new play sets for all of the locations to make each experience different.
WonderSpace BLUE is another initiative that the grant may create that would meet a more serious need. While Grant County lacks indoor play places, there is also a lack of support for children processing grief. BLUE is a program designed as a “play-based grief-peer support group.”
“Our children just face a lot of challenges here,” Freemyer said. “We’re higher than the national average for childhood bereavement, parent incarceration. And then we don’t have adequate access to professional mental health services or grief support groups geared specifically for children in our community.”
This program would be, in addition to PLAY, a time for whole families to come, find peer support and age-dependent programming.
The model is based off the work that the Dougy Center in Portland, Ore. has been doing with grief-peer support groups for the last 40 years. WonderSpace team members have been professionally trained by the Dougy Center in preparation to lead these groups.
Freemyer said that this is not the same as professional counseling and that WonderSpace will help families connect with counseling resources if necessary, but that for many, this time to acknowledge grief and process it can be very helpful.
Right now, WonderSpace BLUE, multiple PLAY locations and times are still just plans. As WonderSpace staff member Sara Turner said though, “the sky’s the limit.” Over the next few years, the team at WonderSpace wants to keep turning their plans into reality as they figure out where they can add locations and how they can keep engaging with Grant County kids.
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