Southold School Launches GoFundMe For 'Magical Playscape' to Help Celebrate the Importance of Playtime

SOUTHOLD, NY — Southold Schools Superintendent David Gamberg has always encouraged students to stretch their creative boundaries and explore their artistic and intellectual pursuits through the joy of play. He's happy to join in, even donning a jester costume at a recent Shakespearean festival to help engage kids in the fun and joy of learning.

And now Gamberg has turned to GoFundMe to help raise funds for a new school project, "Restoring Play to Childhood." So far, the page has garnered $1,323 of its $28,000 goal.

On the page, Gamberg quoted Rousseau: "You will never accomplish your design of forming sensible adults unless you begin by making playful children.”

The words, Gamberg wrote on the page "are as true in 2016 as they were 233 years ago in 1783 when Rousseau wrote about education."

To that end, Southold Schools have embarked on an "ambitious goal to create a “Magical Playscape,” designed to stimulate imaginative and healthy play for children, students of the 21st century, Gamberg said.

"Unlike an overemphasis on standardized testing, this is a way to lay a strong foundation for the skills and dispositions that will serve our students and communities well, now and in the future."

Gamberg invited the community to check out a video "that paints a portrait of our playscape with a plan to add a one of a kind design element—a giant 12-foot tall, larger than life Mother Goose Shoe play structure."

The GoFundMe, Gamberg said, was commenced not only to raise funds for the play structure, "but also to spread the message worldwide about the importance of play in the human development of all children. As you will see, our playground is a place to run, sing, dance, perform skits in an outdoor stone amphitheater, and dig in sandboxes."

He added that the playground also includes a 6,000 square foot garden, "nurtured by our students, that grows hundreds of pounds of fresh, healthy produce each and every year with an endless amount of learning opportunities. With the addition of the Mother Goose Shoe, students will have an inspirational place to read, create, imagine and dream alongside a magical fairy-tale structure."

The Southold School Educational Foundation is a 501(c3) non-profit organization created to support the Southold School community in a variety of ways, Gamberg said.

"Our overall mission is to provide an avenue for funding innovative ideas that will enrich the education of our students as well as bring our parents, students, alumni, and town citizens together as one community supporting Southold School District. It is our goal to restore play as the centerpiece of childhood learning. We hope you will join us."

To donate, click here.

Patch photo by Lisa Finn.

Video courtesy of GoFundMe and Southold Union Free School District.