From the City of Temple Terrace:

The new and improved Riverhills Park Playground will open this Thursday (May 17) with a special grand opening and dedication ceremony.

The event begins at 10 a.m. at the playground, next to Riverhills Elementary School.

Temple Terrace Mayor Joe Affronti will speak, along with other special guests and dignitaries. Light refreshments will be served.

The new “all inclusive” playground features special swing seats, ADA compliant ground-level features, musical instruments, a poured-in-place safety surface and other amenities that can be enjoyed by all children. There is a similar playground next to Lightfoot Recreation Center and another at Riverside Park.

The inspiration for the project came from Clouds of Hope, an organization started in 2008 by Temple Terrace residents Wally and Renee Blain. Their daughter, Allie, has idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura, an immune disorder that affects her blood-clotting ability.

Typical playgrounds, which have sharp-edged equipment and hard surfaces on which Allie could injure herself, are off-limits to her. But all-inclusive playgrounds can be enjoyed by anyone.

The Riverhills Park Playground is the newest and largest all-inclusive playground in the city, said Leisure Services Director James Chambers. The project is a wonderful example of a public partnership, he said. Temple Terrace, Hillsborough County, the Hillsborough County School District and the non-profit Clouds of Hope teamed up to pay for the $160,000 project.

For more information about Clouds of Hope, e-mail cloudsofhope@verizon.net.