Hand-in-Hand Playground Needs Updating

The Hand-in-Hand wooden playground, located on Turner Street in the Blacksburg Municipal Park, was built by community volunteers in 1992. The 30-year-old structure has brought joy and entertainment to many children, but it is showing much wear and tear and needs to be brought up to current national safety standards.

Leathers & Associates, the same company that helped design the original playground, will once again be working with the Town to design and install a new custom-designed destination playground using modern materials. The Town envisions that this playground will continue to serve ages 2-12 and will include benches and small tabletops throughout the playground, along with wood chips (made of engineered wood fiber) as its base.

It is important to the Town that this playground continues to reflect our children’s imaginations and the wants and needs of our community. Therefore, citizen input is invited on the new playground design by September 11, 2022. What have you enjoyed about the original playground that you want to see included in the new playground? What theme do you want the new playground to have? What playground elements are most important and exciting to you?

Kid input is VERY welcome, encouraged, and essential!

There are three ways to participate.
1. Complete the online playground survey on Let’s Talk Blacksburg
2. Draw us a Picture. If you could build your own playground, what would it look like? Upload drawings, pictures, or other ideas for the playground onto the Let’s Talk Blacksburg Hand-in-Hand project page.
3. Participate in the Town’s interactive engagement event on Saturday, August 27th from 10am – 2 pm at the Blacksburg Recreation Center (755 Patrick Henry Drive). This event will include fun and interactive activities for your kids to provide their input on the new playground.

Leathers & Associates will use all the community input provided to create two conceptual plans for the new playground. Citizens will then have an opportunity in October to select the plan they prefer. Winter of 2023 will be spent finalizing plans, ordering materials, and beginning site work. The Town plans to unveil the new playground in May 2023.

For more information:
Dean Crane
Director, Blacksburg Parks and Recreation
Town of Blacksburg
(540) 443-1101
dcrane@blacksburg.gov