Kids whose idea of play has more to do with computers and flashing lights than swings and slides should check out the shiny new playground set at Captain John Wilson Park.
One of its components is a $25,000 Neos 360, dubbed “an electronic game for the heart and lungs — not just the thumbs,” by manufacturer Playworld Systems. It’s a circle of stations with flashing lights that kids (and adults) scurry between, swatting buttons as quickly as possible to achieve the best score.
“It’s a computer game mixed with activity,” Mike Clement, the city’s manager of parks development, said Thursday as he showed off the features of this new playground set, one of four accessible, rubber-floored sets recently installed at a cost of $828,000.
The first Neos in Canada arrived a few years ago outside the WFCU Centre as a pilot project, but this one at Capt. John Wilson Park and another along the riverfront at Alymer Avenue are the first to be incorporated into a larger playground set, said Clement.
Mike Clement, City of Windsor manager of parks development, stands next to a NEOS 360 interactive playground equipment at Capt. John Wilson Park in Windsor, Ont., on June 13, 2013. (JASON KRYK/The Windsor Star)
The company says on its website playneos.com the idea is to combine electronics and outdoor play as a way to get kids physically active in this era of declining childhood activity and increasing obesity. Clement said that all indications are the game has proven popular among kids in Windsor.
“The idea is to add something for the kids who are more electronically oriented,” he said.
The 20-acre park next to Talbot Trail elementary school serves as the focal point of the new residential area known as Walkergate Estates near the 6th Concession and Dougall Parkway.
The playground set with its bridges, climbing wall and towers — designed to encourage interactive imaginative games — is already in. Soon to come are a splash pad with a small building for washrooms, soccer fields, parking and even an adult exercise area, comprised of equipment you might see in a gym, but built for the outdoors. The idea is adults can work out while their kids are scrambling around the playground.
Mike Clement, City of Windsor manager of parks development, stands next to a NEOS 360 interactive playground equipment at Capt. John Wilson Park in Windsor, Ont., on June 13, 2013. (JASON KRYK/The Windsor Star)
Clement said this complex of playground components is intended “to create something that has a little excitement in it, rather than just one small piece of play equipment.” He said the city wants to attract more people into its parks, “just to create that critical mass for activity.”
Ward 9 Coun. Hilary Payne said when he first campaigned for election in 2010 the ward was in pretty good shape except for a glaring lack of community facilities — things like pools and libraries. All the additions to Capt. Wilson Park will help address that for the thousands of kids living in the area, he said.
The park is named after a firefighter who died in 1955 after rescuing a child from a burning house and carries a firefighting theme, with equipment shaped like fire trucks and red the predominant colour.
The other three community playground projects new this year also have themes. The riverfront site has a ship theme, Little River Acres Park is all about castles and the South Cameron Woodlot has a woodland theme.
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