POCATELLO — For the past year children — even those with physical challenges — have had a special place to play.

    “It's gratifying. If I had one word that I would say a year later, it's gratifying,” said Tim Forhan about the completion of Brooklyn's Playground a year ago.

    Forhan, now past president of Valley Pride, was president of the service organization during the 2011 campaign to raise funds for the all-inclusive playground and get it built with such an aggressive time line.

    “Every time I come by it's pretty heavily used,” he said. “I think it is a destination for a lot of people. I think we feel great about it.”

    Those who participated in getting the playground built are celebrating some special milestones. The one-year anniversary of the completion of the playground's construction took place Sept. 25. This week, on Oct. 15, was the one-year anniversary of the playground's official dedication.

    Brooklyn's Playground was the brainchild of Jonny and Melissa Fisher, something they wanted to see built in Pocatello. Their vision was for an all-inclusive playground where children with disabilities could play unencumbered along side children without disabilities.

    Their inspiration was their oldest child, Brooklyn, who was born with spina bifida. The Fishers did the research and took their desire to Valley Pride in early 2010, just months after the group had spearheaded the building of the Chief Pocatello statue, which now rests on South Fifth Avenue.

    After doing their due diligence, Valley Pride members decided the playground was a project they could, and would get behind. Forhan said that was in the summer of 2010 and once they decided to embrace the project, the next biggest decision was to determine the date by when they wanted to complete it.

    “I think we made a courageous decision to say, 'You want to know what, we have some momentum started, we got to play momentum on this and we are going to build this a year from now,'” Forhan said. “There were a lot of skeptics.”

    Forhan said the skepticism was fair.

    “It's a little bit of a testament to what you can do if you decide you are going to do it,” he said of completing the project on time.

    But he qualified that statement by saying there were a lot of people who made it happen.

    There was a huge amount of support. Look at the recognition wall and look at the number of people who contributed to that and participated in so many different ways,” he pointed out.

    Then there was the 500 people they averaged each day during the week-long building process.

    Brooklyn, also hanging out at the playground on Wednesday with her father, Jonny, said she made good use of the playground throughout the summer. When asked about her favorite part of the playground, she quickly responded, “All of it.”

    After some further inquiry, she admitted that the swings are among the first place she typically goes. After that, she really enjoys the slides.

    For Fisher, the playground named for his daughter has become a place where he sees her self-reliance growing.

    “It's just so fun to be able to bring Brooklyn and let her go and be independent and play with her sister,” he said. “(There is a) development that happens with these kids as they are able to play by themselves, with the other kids, without parents' help or the parent always being right there. We have just seen Brooklyn develop that much faster.”

    That's clearly the aspect of the all-inclusive playground he is most enjoying. A close second, however, is the repeated stories he is hearing from other parents who have children with disabilities.

    “(There are) parents who e-mail us or call us and tell us about one of their kids that has a disability that was able to come out and play and how it benefited them,” Fisher said.

    One such story was as recent as last month, when a California woman reached out to the Fishers. She and her family were traveling to Yellowstone when one of the children became car sick while driving through the Portneuf Valley. They stopped in Pocatello to attend to the child and that's when the woman said the kids needed some time to play.

    Fisher said her husband did a search on Google for the nearest playground and O.K. Ward Park, the location of Brooklyn's Playground, came up.

    Off they went.

    But they quickly noticed they were not at an ordinary playground. Aside from its obvious grandeur, there was the soft, rubber surface on the ground. Then there was the ramps in place of steps, and what steps there were, were smaller and easier to manage.

    “As she got to looking around at all the signs and everything, she realized this is an inclusive playground, something that her daughter could benefit directly from and she just started crying,” Fisher said.

    Ironically, the family includes a 3-year-old girl who was born with spina bifida. That's just about the age Brooklyn was when her parents began looking into all-inclusive playgrounds.

    “Now, we have motivated her to do something like this for her community,” Fisher said. “It's really inspiring to know things that we have done in Pocatello are motivating other people around the country.”

    Three others have reached out to the Fishers, soliciting their help in establishing all-inclusive playgrounds in their respective communities.

    A special playground does require some special attention, Forhan and Fisher also noted. The City of Pocatello allocates fund, not dissimilar to what is allocated for other parks, to maintain the playground. But for those special needs, those occasions that there isn't enough funds or something additional, what Forhan called “above and beyond,” needs to be done, there are Brooklyn's Buddies.

    That is the name of a committee dedicated to the long-term care of the playground. At their disposal is a modest budget of slightly more than $20,000, Fisher said. They have a few projects that need to be completed, the painting of one of the playground's elements, and a welcome rock that also informs people about the playground's purpose.

    The ability to raise additional funds still exists, as well, through the sales of pickets around the playground and pavers along the walkway leading up to the playground. It's just $100 for a paver that measure one foot by one foot, and that includes up to 80 characters engraved on it at a clip of 20 characters per line on the four lines available.

    The pickets are $50 each and can also be engraved.

    For more information on the playground and ways you can still contribute to its ongoing maintenance, go to www.brooklynsplayground.org.