Kid Designs Playground
Twelve-year-old Rosili Olson asked leaders in her city to build a playground she designed. They said yes!
Courtesy of Clearfield City
Rosili Olson (with microphone) and the playground she helped design in Clearfield, Utah.
A new playground in Clearfield, Utah, has a special distinction: It was designed by a kid. When the playground opened in September 2024, 12-year-old Rosili Olson had a lot to be proud of.
Rosili came up with the design last year, after seeing the plans for a new playground near her home. The plans showed rope climbers and other features, which are super fun for older kids but too challenging for younger ones. Rosili, then 11, worried that her younger sisters wouldn’t be able to enjoy the new playground until they were bigger.
“I love [my sisters], and we’re all four years apart and they’re both unique and different, and I wanted them to have fun in a park,” Rosili told Fox13 in Utah.
Rosili decided to sketch a design for a playground she felt kids of all ages could enjoy. She dreamed up features like a rock climbing wall and a twisty slide before putting them on paper. Her mom then took her to city hall, where they met with Eric Howes, Clearfield’s head of parks and recreation.
Courtesy of Clearfield City
Rosili (third from left), her family, and city employees pose in front of a picture of Rosili’s playground design.
It was too late to make changes to the playground near Rosili’s house, but Howes invited Rosili to contribute her ideas to the design of another playground that was planned for the future.
“After seeing all the effort she put into all of those drawings knowing we’d already ordered the playground for the park right by her house, the next best thing was to say, ‘We’ve got a playground coming in next year. Let’s use what you’ve done and build something there,’” Howes told the Standard-Examiner.
Rosili is proud of the new playground, which she and her sisters can all enjoy.
“It’s even better than I imagined,” she told the Standard-Examiner. “It’s so beautiful.”
Howes says it’s not often that people go to city hall with an idea in hand.
“I don’t see this from adults very often, to be very honest,” he said. “I was just so impressed with Rosili. She saw something she didn’t like, and she decided, ‘I want to do something about it.’… She just put in so much effort.”
