History Lends Name To Wheelchair-Accessible Playground In Rogers

STAFF PHOTO BEN GOFF • @NWABenGoff Third District Rep. Steve Womack, R-Rogers., takes a moment to clean a smudge off of the sign for the new wheelchair-accessible park.
STAFF PHOTO BEN GOFF • @NWABenGoff Third District Rep. Steve Womack, R-Rogers., takes a moment to clean a smudge off of the sign for the new wheelchair-accessible park.

ROGERS -- The flat turf bed, Braille panels and ramps make the new playground at the Center for Nonprofits accessible to all children, including those using wheelchairs.

Many children visit tenant partners at the center, said Mike Gilbert, chief operating officer for The Jones Trust, which owns the center. They sometimes need to spend a little pent-up energy before or after getting a shot or going to a therapeutic appointment, he said.

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Learn more about The Jones Center, Center for NonProfits at JTL and Center for NonProfits at St. Mary’s at www.jonestrust.org.

"It just makes sense," Gilbert said, repeating his theme of the fundraising campaign that paid for the playground.

A steady stream of children from day programs at the center filed in and out of the building Wednesday. The playground is the second in Rogers he knows of accessible by wheelchair, Gilbert said.

Ramps replace stairs on the playground's central section and a spyglass is mounted at wheelchair height.

Access is important, said Jim Mather, executive director of Sources for Community Independent Living.

"It gives kids, regardless of their ability, the chance to play as kids," Mather said.

Children with mobility issues might be able to get to a playground, but sometimes they can't use the equipment, Mather said. The specially designed area is easier to use and ultimately safer.

The park was named the Charles V. and Mary Ila Webb Memorial Park at St. Mary's on Wednesday after a luncheon celebrating the center's five-year mark. The playground sits on the site of the Webb's former, 1223 W. Poplar St., said daughter Charles Mary Phillippy.

Her father, Charles V. Webb, was in business and chairman of the Planning Commission in Rogers when he died in 1971.

Her mother, Mary Ila Webb, taught school for 49 years, starting at a one-room schoolhouse outside Atkins when she was 16. She grew roses and hydrangeas and had a magnolia tree.

"She would walk across to the hospital with flowers for the nuns, flowers for her sick friends and flowers to people she didn't even know," Phillippy said.

The home was sold to St. Mary's Hospital in 1972 and used as a daycare center. The house had fallen into disrepair by the time the Center for Nonprofits opened, she said.

Phillippy helped raise money for the playground's construction, although she said she was heartbroken when told her childhood home would be razed. Now when she drives by and sees the children, she smiles. Her mother would have approved, she said.

Everyone who worked at the hospital knew the rock house, said Susan Barrett, a board member of The Jones Trust and former chief executive officer at the hospital.

The conversion of the hospital to a nonprofit center has been a good thing, Barrett said. It is a central point for those who need it.

"You don't have to be inside this building for more than five minutes to recognize that it's alive," she said.

There is about 400,000 square feet of space between the Center for Nonprofits in Springdale and the Center for Nonprofits in Rogers, said Ed Clifford, chief executive officer of The Jones Trust. Having many agencies together limits duplication of services, he said.

Donations from Walton Family Foundation, corporations and individuals, including the Webb family, paid for the playground equipment, which is valued around $225,000, Gilbert said. The fence at the playground is for the safety of the children, but there's no lock and it is open to the public, he said.

Dominican sisters from the Sacred Heart Convent in Springfield, Ill., visited Rogers for the luncheon.

Sister Josetta Brown of Illiopolis, Ill., said her heart is still in Rogers. Brown worked with infants and preschoolers at the rock house for most of her 21 years at the old St. Mary's Hospital. The playground is a welcome addition to the campus, she said.

"Our children would have loved it," Brown said.

NW News on 07/03/2014

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