11 year old designs new playground for Clearfield

CLEARFIELD, Utah — Clearfield’s newest playground has an extra-special design. The designer behind it isn’t even 12 years old.

Rosili Olson, age 11, was playing on a new playground near her home. It was designed for children 5 years and older.  That excluded one of her sisters, so she decided to make a drawing of the perfect playground for all ages.  That drawing turned into several drawings including different angles of the plan.

“She did all of the groundwork to make this playground happen,” said Shaundra Rushton the Clearfield City Communication Manager.

When her design was complete, Rosili asked her parents to take her to the Clearfield City offices to show them her ideas.

“The head of our parks saw the initiative that she took to create change and he wanted to make her dream happen,” said Rushton.

Coincidentally, Clearfield was already planning to build a new playground at Bicentennial Park and they had only just started the design process.  Officials thought Rosili’s design would be a perfect fit.

They set up a meeting with their playground designer to create a playground design based on Rosili’s drawings.  She attended planning meetings and gave feedback on the renderings, including changing some colors.

“We’re just really proud that we have residents like Rosili who saw a need and then did the steps necessary to make change happen,” said Rushton.

The playground is at Bicentennial Park, 931 E. 600 S. in Clearfield.  On Sept. 24, the new playground will officially open with a ribbon cutting ceremony.

“She’s going to be able to cut the ribbon,” said Rushton. “And then she and her sister get to play on that playground like she wanted.”