CLEARFIELD, Utah — One young Clearfield City resident's vision has come to life, and it’s something her whole community can enjoy.
"It’s even better than I imagined, and it’s so beautiful,” said Rosili Olson.
Rosili is 12 years old, and she designed a new playground in Clearfield.
Earlier this year, Rosili saw a post on Facebook about a new playground being installed at Thornock Park. But she thought the equipment was for older children and was worried that she wouldn’t be able to play there with her little sisters. So, she decided to sketch what her ideal playground would look like.
"I love them, and we're all four years apart and they’re both unique and different, and I wanted them to have fun in a park,” explained Rosili.
So Rosili’s mom took her to city hall to meet officials and show them her work.
"I’m the fortunate one who got the chance to talk to her, and we sat down with her and went through every one of those drawings," said Eric Howes, the city's community services director. "There are labels. She has details of what everything is and what it’s supposed to do, and she put a ton of time into that and a lot of thought, and she showed it from four different angles."
From there, the city developed concepts with its playground equipment vendor, and Rosili was involved every step of the way. It was too late to change the playground at Thornock Park, but the city was planning to install a new playground at Bicentennial Park anyway, so they went with Rosili’s designs.
"Every day that I would have to go there for another meeting, I would tell my friends and be like, 'Ah, I get to go again, woohoo!'” said Rosili.
"This has been a fun process, and I kind of hate to see it end,” said Howes.
On Tuesday, the playground was officially opened. Rosili and her family cut the ribbon at the park.
"I really thought that it was similar to what Rosili thought, which was they would say, 'Thank you so much for your efforts' and things like that,” said her mom, Annie Olson. "Really my purpose was to show her kind of how it works, and wanted her to really understand the full process of it, so for it to go this far was really awesome."
And now, there's a park for kids of all ages to enjoy — something families say they are thrilled about.
"It’s so nice to be able to come to one park and everybody be entertained,” said Michelle Fish, who brought her little ones there.
From her pages to the park, Rosili made her dreams come true.
"It’s amazing. So, so fun,” she said.
