All Inclusive Park Planned For Milwaukee County

WAUWATOSA, WI—An inclusive park, which will include a play and recreation space for people of all ages and abilities, is planned for Milwaukee County.

Damian Buchman, CEO of The Ability Center, explained the goal of the $7 million RampUp project is to create a space entire families will enjoy and a place people from throughout the region can enjoy for years to come. The Ability Center is actively fundraising for the park but it is unknown how much money has been raised.

Buchman told Patch the goal of The Ability Center is to transform the greater Milwaukee region into the most universally inclusive recreation destination in the country.

RampUpMKE was created in 2015. The organization worked to make Bradford Beach more accessible, adding beach wheelchairs, accessible ramps, and mats that touch the shoreline in July. At Red Arrow & Wilson Park, they installed ice-skating sleds.

About the project

While there are inclusive playgrounds that accommodate those with special needs, it doesn't take into account the acres of park or beach around it, Buchman said.

Together with the Milwaukee County Parks System, Wisconsin Avenue Park, located at 10300 W Wisconsin Avenue was selected for the project.

The 17 acres of the park is close to Children's Wisconsin Hospital, Ronald McDonald House and The Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin. Buchman added it is close to the Milwaukee County Zoo and St. Camillus, an assisted living community.

"It is close to Waukesha County and in a place where most people can access it (the park)," Buchman told Patch.

The park will include the following amenities:

• Universal Playground
• Inclusive Walking Trail
• Accessible Play Pockets
• Accessible Fitness Stations
• Fitness Zone
• Crossfit Workout Station Community
• Community Pavilion
• Enhanced and Universal Baseball Fields

Phase 1 of the project is set to start in spring 2021, which includes already developed areas such as the playground and baseball fields.

The new project fits all the goals for the center such as fitness, health, and recreation. Buchman said it ensures anyone can play from birth to the aging population.

He explained the elderly are not the grandparents from decades past. More often, they want to play with their grandchildren and not be sidelined.

"If you build a universal structure, they (grandparents) can play with," he said.

Buchman added people need to think about the parent with disabilities. For example, if a child runs off into a park, how will the parent in a wheelchair go get them?

'We are all borrowing a body'

At 13, Buchman was diagnosed with childhood bone cancer in his right leg. After 9 months of chemotherapy, a limb-salvage, and seven months of remission, Buchman was re-diagnosed during his freshman year of high school, this time in his left leg.

Buchman defeated the odds stacked against him and is a survivor. He is also a champion for making the world more inclusive.

He has three sons and can still do most things with his children. However, Buchman said there will come a time when he most likely will be a bilateral amputee.

"At that point, there will be days when I'm on prosthetics and days when I will be in a (wheel) chair," he said.

Buchman said it is not just a reality for him and people like him but for everyone.

"We are all borrowing a body today, that will not work the same tomorrow," Buchman said.

It could be an accident, disease, or part of the aging process. He said his point if your ability changes, "psychologically the things that you desire don't."

After the Bradford Beach project was completed, he heard from an elderly person who said how much they missed the beach.

"Disability and lack of opportunity is something that people can face in a blink of an eye," Buchman told Patch.

For more information, you can visit The Ability Center Website.