By Anna Gustafson
For Ridgewood resident Teyu Shu, a Forest Hills playground designed by foster children last week will be more than just a place to have fun on the swings or see-saw. It will be a safe haven for children whose lives have often been characterized by the obstacles they must jump.
“It’s really important for the younger kids to have this safe, fun space,” said Shu, an 18-year-old foster child and radiology student at LaGuardia Community College. “These kids have had to deal with a lot, and it’s a lot for them to handle. They’ll see kids playing with their parents on playgrounds, and now they’ll have a playground where they can play with their parents. They’ll feel normal.”
About 35 foster children gathered at Forest Hills’ Forestdale, the largest and oldest foster care nonprofit in Queens, last Thursday to help design a playground that will be built by about 200 volunteers Sept. 23. JetBlue, which has its headquarters in Forest Hills, and KaBOOM!, a national nonprofit, are sponsoring the playground, which will be built on Forestdale’s 112th Street campus.
Forestdale provides assistance to about 500 children in foster care and their families as well as 75 children whose families are in danger of having to turn over their children to the foster care system.
“This is our seventh playground we’ve built in the nation and it was our dream to build one in Forest Hills because it’s so close to our headquarters,” said Icema Gibbs, JetBlue’s director of corporate social responsibility. “It’s important to us that kids can design their dream playground.”
The children, in preschool through age 12, filled their drawings of ideal playgrounds with snack bars, pools, swing sets, monkey bars, tunnels and trampolines. A panel of parents, teenagers from Forestdale, KaBOOM! engineers and other adults will submit a wishlist of items for the play space. A playground supplier who works with KaBOOM!, PlayWorld Systems Inc., will design three potential plans, one of which Forestdale will eventually select.
Forestdale staff and parents praised the fact the children were heavily involved with creating a playground that will serve as a space for the foster children to meet with both biological and foster parents.
Anstiss Agnew, executive director of Forestdale, said foster children tend to associate experiences with the two sets of parents as often tense, but the playground should instead help mold the face-to-faces into more positive, fun-filled experiences.
“Now maybe the foster and biological parents can become closer,” said Jamaica resident Lorel Gore, who has been a foster parent with Forestdale since 2001. “Now everyone can come together and enjoy something together. That’s really important.”
Shu, who has been in Forestdale for three years, said the playground will also give Forestdale’s teenagers a place to hang out.
“It helps the older teens stay out of trouble,” Shu said.
Reach reporter Anna Gustafson by e-mail at agustafson@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 174.
