By: Dean Vaglia | C&G Newspapers | Published April 8, 2025
CLINTON TOWNSHIP — A long-term project to build a place for everyone to play has come to fruition.
On April 4, Clinton Township officials and community members ceremonially opened the township’s inclusive playground. Located on the municipal campus between the Robert J. Cannon Civic Center and the Clinton-Macomb Public Library’s main branch, the park features six playscape “pods” built on top of American with Disabilities Act-compliant soft surfaces.
“This is really exciting, not just for me personally because of the work and years of effort that we had to put into this, but it’s just so exciting for the community,” said Township Supervisor Paul Gieleghem, a member of the Inclusive Playground Committee. “Our hope is to see this filled. It’s a great feeling.”
The park’s six pods contain a mix of play equipment for children of all ages and abilities. A total of three play structures dot the playground, along with two sets of swings, a zip line and numerous ground-level features to climb up, on and play around. Even older park guests can get their active minutes in with a circuit training workout area.
While the park’s surface and range of structures work to make the playground as inclusive as it can be, the details are where the inclusivity shines though. Slides on the play structures are metal, which Gieleghem says allows guests with cochlear implants — a surgically-implanted device that can help people with hearing loss perceive sounds — to slide carefree while a plastic-surfaced slide would create issues for them. Signs displaying the Macomb Intermediate School District’s storyboard system allow for nonverbal communication using a language familiar to Macomb County children. A section of the playground is dedicated to a “quiet area” where overstimulated park guests can stop and resituate themselves as needed.
“(The park is) built for everybody but designed to accommodate people who, I think, were previously excluded from being on a playground,” Gieleghem said. “What that brings us to is kids being able to play together and the socialization effect of that. For kids without disabilities, they get to learn and appreciate kids with (disabilities,) and the kids with disabilities get to play with everybody else.”
For AnnMarie Ottoy, chair of the Inclusive Playground Committee, her favorite part of the park are the swings because they are her son Zachary’s favorite part. The work and isolation of seeking out professionals, assistance and support for Zachary after his disabilities diagnosis led to Ottoy reaching out to the township and then-treasurer Gieleghem about constructing an inclusive playground.
“It was mentally and emotionally exhausting and left little time for something every child and their family deserves: fun,” Ottoy said. “A chance to be outside running, swinging, spinning, playing with friends or having the chance to make friends. For parents, family members and caregivers to connect and understand they are not alone and that there is such a thing as community. These are the things that would have made a tremendous difference in the life of our family, helping us navigate the loneliness and solitude that often comes with raising a child with disabilities.”
Over the intervening years the committee worked to raise $1.4 million to fund the park’s construction, often finding help throughout the community to get there. The committee teamed up with nonprofit The Arc of Macomb to aid in the grant process, and local legislators lobbied for a $1 million allocation for the park in the 2024 state budget. A final major donation of $300,000 was made from the township at the insistence of Robert Cannon, then the township supervisor, to allow the project to meet its goals and make the inclusive playground a reality. Work on the park began in July 2024 and ended by November last year.
“I’m just really overwhelmed with gratitude for all of the help and the support from the community and everybody that helped make this happen,” Ottoy said. “This was really a dream and at one point we weren’t sure if it was going to be a reality just due to the sheer cost of it, but here we are and I couldn’t be happier.”
Along with building the inclusive playground, the committee’s goals also include recommending adaptive improvements and practices to be carried out in other parks. In fact, what the committee has learned has already made it into existing and future park improvements.
“The splashpad (at the Civic Center) was built; they now have wheelchair seats so kids that are not mobile can enjoy the splashpad,” Gieleghem said. “And then (there are) the grants that we got for George George Park to build an accessible universal kayak launch. This project really helped us sort of expand that focus and do these types of things to make us more inclusionary and more accessible for everybody.”
The two Challenger Baseball fields at Neil Reid Park are another example of inclusive play design making its way into the township’s parks. The diamonds feature solid baserunning surfaces and were made to support the Clinton Valley Little League’s Challenger Division.
The completion and grand opening of the inclusive playground was a celebration, but also a crossroads for the committee behind it now that its tentpole project has been completed.
So where does the committee go from here?
“Well, we’re still looking at that,” Gieleghem said. “I think (the committee) provided some great guidance, but I would hate (for) the amount of effort and the amount of experience and the things we learned along the way go away. So we need to sort of expand the direction (of the committee) and hope that folks stay with us.”
The question of what the committee will look like going forward remains open for Ottoy, but the accomplishment in Clinton Township is unlikely to be the end of her own efforts. Ottoy serves as the communications director for Dutton Farm, an organization that supports adults with disabilities, and she expects to continue working for disability advocacy causes.
“My sincere desire is for families to come together here in this space (the inclusive playground) and to connect with one another, to better understand one another and to form those real, lasting friendships and bonds that can last a lifetime,” Ottoy said.
The inclusive playground is located at 40700 Romeo Plank Road.