Thank You Columbia Bank We are excited to share that we have received a $15,000 grant from Columbia Bank to help ensure there are no barriers to outdoor play! Each year, we provide over $40,000 in financial aid, allowing more than half our program participants to attend at a little to no cost. Ensuring that...Read More

Introducing The PlayGarden Review, Fall 2025!! We are excited to announce the publication of the second edition of our zine, The PlayGarden Review. This edition of our zine highlights the stories behind some of the cornerstones of PlayGarden. From interviews with our groundskeeper on how he rebuilt the coop to our most iconic recipes, this...Read More

Remembering Rose Ellen Part 6: Losing Ground Over the years at Fort Wayne, Rose Ellen seems to decline. When she entered the institution, she was a young woman who could compose a coherent letter in cursive and knew the multiplication tables, but during testing in 1951she is described as “depressed and homesick and called attention...Read More

Remembering Rose Ellen Part 5: Evaluating Rose Ellen In my work as a clinician, my first introduction to a child and their family often came from previous evaluations and reports. I too, wrote evaluations not all that different from what I read in the Indiana State archives. Learning about Rose Ellen from this clinical perspective,...Read More

Remembering Rose Ellen Part 4: The Indiana State Archives: Rose Ellen was admitted to The Indiana State School for Feeble-Minded Children in Fort Wayne, IN, in January 1933 at 19 years of age. She spent 38 years there. To receive the documents from the Indiana State Archives required a simple form.  I filled out the...Read More

We are so excited to announce that the PlayGarden now has our own on-site, PlayGarden Job Coach! Meet Damion Hernstrom! Hi! As the new Job Coach here at PlayGarden, I’m excited to share what I’ve learned and experienced while working in the world of Supported Employment and Special Education for a combined ten-plus years. Moving...Read More

This last month we have had so many great people and organizations come and volunteer at the PlayGarden.  Thank you to Devon and Noosh from Seattle Tree Care for donating 10 yards of wood chips to mulch our trails!  Thank you to PlayGarden preschool parent Paul Olczak for organizing a work party with 8 members of his team from Microsoft on Thursday, 10/24....Read More