TACOMA, Wash. — The highlight of Melanie's Park is a 37-foot climbing tower that requires kids to use both their muscles and their problem solving skills.
The reward is a winding metal tube that elicits screams of pure joy; the sounds of success if you're a Metro parks project manager like Kristi Evans.
"The kids screaming inside the tower is amazing," Evans said. "Then when they come down and come out, you can feel you can see their smiles and their joy."
Melanie's Park is named for the late Melanie Dressel, the former CEO of Columbia Bank, whose office once overlooked all of this fun. Her husband, Bob, walked their dog through the park this morning.
"You'd never know Melanie was a banker," he said. "She was not an MBA graduate. She was a Poly-Sci graduate. But she knew how to work with people."
And she was a great philanthropist and community leader whose co-workers donated to the park.
Evans says Tacoma history is reflected everywhere at Melanie's Park, from the basket weaving stamps on the promenade to the log jam play structure out back, to the tower itself, which resembles a smoke stack that once stood in the same spot.
Although it was built for kids, Evening's Saint Bryan and Jose Cedeno decided they needed to try the slide for themselves. That meant overcoming a little claustrophobia. A wet slide isn't ideal but this summer, Melanie's Park is going to be the place to bring the kids.
"If they're here they're having fun, you're hearing good things from people and the word spreads quickly, that's one of the better ways to find out if you're successful in what you build," Evans said.
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