Tatum’s Garden: Making play accessible for every child

Tatum’s Garden is a fully-accessible, fully-inclusive outdoors playground located in Salinas, the first of its kind in Monterey County. It was the brainchild of Shawn and Amanda Bakker, whose youngest daughter, Tatum, was born with Spina Bifida in 2010. Tatum uses a wheelchair, and her parents struggled to find playgrounds where Tatum could enjoy playing alongside her older siblings. Then, on a vacation in Idaho, the Bakker family stumbled upon a fully-inclusive playground; for the first time, they watched kids of all abilities play together on play structures, side by side. They were so inspired by this experience that they decided to do whatever it took to have something similar back home in Salinas. With Tatum’s Garden, the Bakkers’ mission was to provide their daughter and other area children who use wheelchairs an awesome place to play. 

The mission of Tatum’s Garden is to provide inclusive play areas for all children, regardless of their ability. The Bakkers secured the land for Tatum’s Garden by winning approval from the Salinas City Council to build on a four-acre abandoned parking lot adjacent to Sherwood Park. Once they had the location set, the steering committee visited local elementary schools to brainstorm ideas for the playground’s design and theme. The next step was raising money, and they were wildly successful. The Bakkers raised $1 million to build the playground. That money came from large corporate sponsorships and lots of smaller, community-based fundraising efforts (like selling t-shirts). Amanda tells me, “One of the biggest obstacles for us was keeping up with the fast pace which the support we received demanded. When we set out, we thought maybe it might take a few years to raise the $1 million we were shooting for…but no, our community raised it in seven short months! They were behind us all the way, and ready for construction. It was a major whirlwind!”

The playground itself was built during an all-out community volunteer effort over ten days in September 2013, an effort that Amanda calls “tremendously supportive.” Over 3,000 people showed up to pitch in and help construct the play structures, paint murals, move gravel, and create a grassy park area around the playground with benches and restrooms. Amanda says, “We were amazed to have volunteers showing up from every single zip code in Monterey County, from all socioeconomic backgrounds, from ages 10-99 years old! (Literally, we had a 99-year-old woman out there helping us!).” Local artists donated their time and talent to making Tatum’s Garden a uniquely decorated place, and it is fun to walk around and spot all the different artistic flourishes adorning the park. All the art and many of the play structures play on an agricultural theme, an ode to the Salinas Valley. There are painted vegetables, a play farm stand, and a tractor, among other thematic elements. It is a place that beckons a family to stay all day, picnicking, playing, and relaxing—or frequent after school lets out to get kids’ wiggles out.

Five years after Tatum’s Garden was built, it is thriving, and it is still supported by the community. Every month, there a Community Cleanup day, where 25-50 volunteers show up to sanitize benches and picnic tables, pull weeds, pick up litter, and wipe down the play structures. Amanda says, “It amazes us how much the community has taken ownership of this place, and I attribute it to the fact that they helped fund and then literally build it, so they continue to care for it.”

As for the Bakkers, their lives have been improved by the building and maintaining of the playground. “It is so much fun for the three siblings to have this amazing place to play together where Tatum can fully participate with them,” Amanda says, adding that “It has also impacted [Tatum], and hopefully other students like her with special needs, to have this place be a potential destination for class field trips. She can play with her classmates here in ways she struggles to at school.” Tatum was only two years old when Tatum’s Garden was built, so she doesn’t remember a world without it. The Bakkers hope that she grows up knowing that her community values her and all kids with special needs, in fact, “so much that they came together in an unprecedented way to create this sanctuary of inclusion.”