540WMain Receives #PlayEverywhere Design Challenge Grant

We’re proud to share that ROCket to Imagination was selected as a #PlayEverywhere Design Challenge grantee! We’re creating a playspace to help kids imagine pathways to opportunities through play, their own curiosity and accessible design that will transform an everyday space and help infuse more equitable play opportunities in Rochester! Excited to start this journey with Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation and Kaboom!

In collaboration with the University of Rochester and the Barbara J. Burger iZone, 540WMain, and the 19th Ward Community Association will build a community designed playspace to help kids imagine pathways to opportunities through play, their own curiosity and accessible design. Our inspiration for this playspace is called ROCket to Imagination with the main feature being a wooden rocket structure— a cozy hideaway designed for kids of any age and ability. Within the rocket, kids will find shelves of books and outside, a wheelchair accessible maze featuring art painted by kids and families of Rochester’s 19th Ward. Learn more about the grant and other winners here.

About The Play Everywhere Design Challenge

The Play Everywhere Design Challenge, supported by the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation, awarded $1 million to communities in Southeast Michigan and Western New York

KABOOM! and the Built to Play initiative, supported by the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation, proudly present the Play Everywhere Design Challenge. This design challenge awarded $1 million to communities building landmark playspaces that, when construction is completed, will provide kids with equitable opportunities to play.

Exclusive to Western New York and Southeast Michigan communities, the Play Everywhere Challenge Design Challenge invited communities to submit creative design ideas that make it easier for families to incorporate play into everyday moments. Winning projects will bring play into public spaces in unconventional ways — such as implementing swings at bus stops or play zones at laundromats — in neighborhoods that have experienced significant disinvestment.