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Supporters Sheena Miles (left) and Jerika Mays cut the ribbon to open the new inclusive playground at Green Acres Elementary School in North Ogden on Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026.

Jared Lloyd, Standard-Examiner

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Children play on the new inclusive playground at Green Acres Elementary School in North Ogden on Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026.

Jared Lloyd, Standard-Examiner

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Children play on the new inclusive playground at Green Acres Elementary School in North Ogden on Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026.

Jared Lloyd, Standard-Examiner

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Supporters cut the ribbon to open the new inclusive playground at Green Acres Elementary School in North Ogden on Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026.

Jared Lloyd, Standard-Examiner

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Children play on the new inclusive playground at Green Acres Elementary School in North Ogden on Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026.

Jared Lloyd, Standard-Examiner

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Sheena Miles (left) and Jerika Mays take a moment to celebrate after cutting the ribbon to open the new inclusive playground at Green Acres Elementary School in North Ogden on Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026.

Jared Lloyd, Standard-Examiner

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Children play on the new inclusive playground at Green Acres Elementary School in North Ogden on Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026.

Jared Lloyd, Standard-Examiner

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A child looks at the painted course on the pavement at Green Acres Elementary School in North Ogden on Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026.

Jared Lloyd, Standard-Examiner

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Former PTO president Sheena Miles talks to the community at the opening of the new inclusive playground at Green Acres Elementary School in North Ogden on Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026.

Jared Lloyd, Standard-Examiner

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Children look at a rendering of a playground at Green Acres Elementary School in North Ogden on Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026.

Jared Lloyd, Standard-Examiner

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Children play on the new inclusive playground at Green Acres Elementary School in North Ogden on Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026.

Jared Lloyd, Standard-Examiner

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A painted course on the pavement at Green Acres Elementary School provides more activities for students, as shown on Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026.

Jared Lloyd, Standard-Examiner

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A rendering stands in front of the new inclusive playground at Green Acres Elementary School in North Ogden on Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026.

Jared Lloyd, Standard-Examiner

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Children play on the new inclusive playground at Green Acres Elementary School in North Ogden on Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026.

Jared Lloyd, Standard-Examiner

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Community members celebrate the opening of the new inclusive playground at Green Acres Elementary School in North Ogden on Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026.

Jared Lloyd, Standard-Examiner

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A brilliant smile lit up Sheena Miles’s face — and for good reason.

She watched children swarm over the new playground equipment at Green Acres Elementary School in North Ogden after the official ribbon-cutting ceremony on Wednesday, making it a major milestone in having a dream come true.

“My family comes here quite often,” Miles said. “We’ll walk over here in the evenings. Showing up and seeing families playing, parents watching their kids, creating memories — it’s just priceless. It just makes it makes the whole thing worth it because that’s what I had envisioned from the beginning. To see it in real life, it’s surreal.”

The playground that has been completed is the first of two phases (with the rest to be completed in the coming months), a project that came to fruition as a community raised $325,000 and volunteered countless hours during a three-year span to turn that idea into a reality.

Miles was one of the driving forces behind the effort but was quick to point to the many other parents and organizations who stepped up make it happen.

Now the community gets to enjoy the benefit of that work, both in terms of their new playground and for the growth that it facilitated.

“It was absolutely worth it,” Miles said. “The reason why it’s not just because we’re leaving behind this legacy that will be here for generations to come, but it really is because of who I became along the way. I grew so much. I learned so much. I’m not the same person as when I started, and that’s more valuable than any money.”

Justin Willie was the principal at Green Acres for much of the project (although now he is the principal at Valley View Elementary in Roy) and said he felt a lot of relief and excitement in seeing it getting completed.

“It’s going to be such a big lift for this school,” Willie said. “Kids would come out here to play foursquare and play basketball. They did not play on the playground because the only thing you could do was hang from it. So it’s been good to see this something new, something different. Then to include our life-skills students, it’s huge.”

An important part of the project for many involved was creating a space for life-skills students of all ages to have an inclusive play to participate with their peers. That’s something that has special meaning to Heather Georgi, who is now the principal of Green Acres.

“I’m going to speak as a mom first because my son is a life-skills student who will be coming here,” Georgi said. “I was floored when I learned that they were doing this new installation because my kid is going to have a place to go play and make friends. This will be a new time at this school for him and so that right there alleviated a lot of my husband and I’s concerns. As a principal, that inclusion is so important and I can’t wait to see that get going here.”

It’s difficult to calculate either the effort required or the value gained by having the new facilities, but the reality is that many communities in Northern Utah would likely benefit greatly from embarking on similar projects at their elementary schools.

To those considering such an endeavor, Miles has some simple advice:

“I would say that you just have to start,” she said. “You don’t have to know the whole path. Really it’s about just somebody being willing to take that first step and trusting your community to show up for you, because that’s what happened. I drove this project, but I absolutely did not do it on my own. The community showed up. The community believed in the mission. They bought in, and they showed up.

“I’m a very community-minded person, and I believe in the power of community. I think as human beings connection is one of our biggest, most important needs. Watching a community come together for that core mission that benefits our children and our future generations was amazing. But you’ve just got to start.”

She said it will likely be a challenging road, if her experience was any indication. Finding the funds and navigating the systemic challenges isn’t easy.

“The biggest challenge I saw was the lack of district support,” Miles said. “The hands of the district are tied in a lot of ways that are out of their control. But I am continuing to advocate for change in that way. There needs to be a better framework. I think that there needs to be some creative problem solving on how we can create a stronger partnership there, and how the district can offer more support because ultimately this is their property. That was probably my biggest challenge.”

But, she added, with enough dedication and collaboration, the rewards will come.

“Being able to watch that vision come to life from a rendering on a piece of paper into an actual playground, that was surreal,” Miles said. “It turned out so much bigger and better than I had anticipated, so that was definitely really cool.”

To Willie, the true beneficiaries are the children themselves who need the experiences that come on a playground.

“Much of the learning about how to get along with others and grow as citizens happens outside when it’s a little bit less supervised,” Willie said. “They run around and play games, and they have to find friends, and they have to work together, and they have to make choices that are beneficial for everyone. To have something as cool as this where they can run around and play all of those games, it just is so important.

“They’re going to learn how to make those choices and those character education things that we teach them. But now this is where they practice it. So, to me, that’s the biggest reason why we need good playgrounds. ”

And that’s also true in learning to embrace individuals who may be different in some ways, including life-skills students.

“We’re teaching kids that there’s nothing different about them,” Georgi said. “They might talk a little bit differently. They might walk a little bit differently, but they play just like they do. It’s about not being afraid of the unknown. Go ask questions, come explore things like this, and just get to know that group because they have so much love, just like our all of our other kids.”

The newness of the equipment will wear off as the months and years pass, but the potential long-term benefits to the community of the space may be felt for decades to come. Other Northern Utah communities may decide they want to follow the Green Acres model and invest in similar facilities at their schools.

And those who get involved and sacrifice to make it happen can then end up with the same sense of pride and accomplishment Miles feels whenever she sees children enjoying the new equipment.

“There is just like a feeling that like I belong here, and I helped create something incredible,” Miles said. “This is my mark that I left.”