Service club aims to add accessible playgrounds, starting at Sertoma

The Sioux Falls Noon Sertoma Club is starting a major effort to add all-abilities park equipment, potentially citywide.

The effort is starting at Sertoma Park at 4300 S. Oxbow Ave. where the group hopes to replace two sections of aging equipment with new play options geared for all ages and abilities.

The equipment provides a “unique play experience that incorporates inclusion, learning, safety, independence and so much more,” co-organizer Christine Esterling said. “Quite frankly, it’s long overdue in our community.”

The hope is to raise up to $1 million for equipment at area parks within the next three years.

“We’re just starting,” she said. “We have just finalized our memorandum of understanding with the city, so we have moved full steam ahead.”

If the group raises $750,000, it can finish the Sertoma project. Members also have worked with the city to identify other pieces that need to be replaced citywide over the next five years.

After a fundraising event Oct. 8 at the Ramkota Exhibit Hall, the plan it to work “more heavily on soliciting sponsorships and private donations,” she said.

Visit sertomafest.com to learn more.

“There’s been quite a bit of interest in who Sertoma is and what the club provides to the Sioux Falls area, so we’re also offering an option to join one of our weekly members or for one of our members to share more about Sertoma,” Esterling said.

Since 1929, Sertoma also has supported the Sioux Falls area through millions of dollars in community improvement projects, including at Sertoma Park and the Butterfly House, nonprofit grants to places such as Active Generations, scholarships to Augustana University and area high school students, hearing aids and speech therapy for those in need, and thousands of volunteer hours helping schools with hearing screenings for every elementary student in the metro area.

There also is an all-abilities playground planned near the new ice ribbon at the future Jacobson Plaza at Falls Park.