About Us
Overview - Inspiration
The Inspiration for Boundless Playgrounds®
It was a warm summer day in 1994 when Amy Jaffe Barzach took her 3-year-old son, Daniel, and his infant brother, Jonathan, to a playground near their home in West Hartford, Connecticut. As Daniel joyfully played on the equipment, Amy noticed a young girl at the playground's edge. Sitting in her wheelchair with tears in her eyes, the girl watched from the sidewalk as the other children played.
This image haunted Amy, but soon diminished in the face of her family’s tragedy: That fall, Jonathan was diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy, a rare, degenerative neuromuscular disease. In January 1995, at only 9 months old, he died. When a bereavement counselor suggested that Amy and her husband Peter channel their grief into a project dedicated to their son, they remembered the little girl at the playground. The idea was to create a groundbreaking playground where children and people of all ages and all abilities could celebrate life together.
"It just seemed to be the right thing to do," says Amy Jaffe Barzach, who has since had two more children, Alyssa and Michael. "If Jonathan had grown up, he would have needed a wheelchair and been that child alone on the sidewalk sadly waiting to play."
The Barzachs envisioned a playground where children of all abilities could truly play together. It took a year and a half to raise the $350,000 needed to develop the playground in their hometown of West Hartford, Connecticut, and recruit the volunteers necessary to build it.
The completed 25,000-square-foot playground, Jonathan's Dream, designed by Learning Structures of New Hampshire, was created so children of all abilities and their families can celebrate life together. Children who use wheelchairs can play side by side with their friends without disabilities at waist-high sand tables where they can build castles, and "climb" to a universally-accessible tree house. Children with sensory disabilities can have fun throughout the playground, including taking turns entertaining their friends on a music-chime wall or swinging together on the team tire hammock. Children with disabilities like Down syndrome play in the entire playground but especially benefit from the many different kinds of balancing activities. Children of all abilities can play together on the glider boat swing, team limousine, four-car train, play houses, and more – just because they're designed to be wide enough for support equipment doesn't mean that they aren't fun for feet too. Amy Jaffe Barzach says, "We will always appreciate the many volunteers who made Jonathan’s Dream possible, as well as Learning Structures, the community build playground company that helped our family design and create Jonathan's Dream. We also appreciate the Hebrew Home and Hospital for donating the land for Jonathan’s Dream and the Mandell JCC on the Zachs Campus for making the playground part of its facilities and taking such good care of it.”
In 1996, weeks after the memorial playground was completed, a small article about it appeared in TIME magazine. As a result, hundreds of requests for help were received from individuals, organizations, schools and nonprofit organizations interested in creating playgrounds like it for the children in their communities. Boundless Playgrounds was established in 1997 to respond to those requests.
An Inspiring Speaker for Your Audience
Is your organization looking for a captivating, inspiring speaker? Amy Jaffe Barzach, Boundless Playgrounds founder/chief inspiration officer and co-author of Accidental Courage, Boundless Dreams, is available to speak on topics including “Everyone Can Make a Difference” and “Finding Your Passion.” Please contact us about speaking opportunities/requests.
