CLEARFIELD, Utah — Clearfield City will soon to constructing a playground for their Bicentennial Park, designed by an 11-year-old girl to be the perfect place for kids of all ages.
Rosili Olsen is an 11-year-old who saw plans posted for a new playground at a different park, and she noticed that she likely wouldn't be able to play with her whole family there.
"Once we saw the photos on Facebook, I didn’t think that me and my sisters would play well together because my youngest sister, who is 3, can’t really go on them," she said.
So, Rosili picked up her pencil and designed her own playground. She colored in the slides, a rainbow above the slide, monkey bars, musical elements, stumps, and other equipment that even little kids could play on.
“I did it on all different angles, and this is from one of the angles and it’s from where the monkey bars and little slide are,” said Rosili. "Once we saw the photos on Facebook, I didn’t think that me and my sisters would play well together because my youngest sister, who is 3, can’t really go on them."
She wanted to show her sketches to the city, so her parents helped. "Just basically asked, I said, could you do a mom a favor, could you look at these drawings that she put together, she worked really hard on them,” explained Rosili’s mom, Annie Olsen.
Clearfield City knew they had to build her playground, even if it wouldn't be at Thornock Park due to having its design settled on.
"I’ve been doing this for almost 25 years, I’ve never had this type of situation happen,” said Eric Howes, community services director at Clearfield City. “To me, this is one of the funnest situations, just experiences of my career.”
Since then, Clearfield City has been working with Olsen and professional playground companies to build her park.
"So proud of her, she’s such an amazing girl, she’s always had so much ambition and love, and her heart to do things with other people, and help other people out,” said father Travis Olsen. “It’s been really awesome to watch her grow up and experience all these amazing things that she does with her heart."
The city hopes to have Rosili and her family cut the ribbon to open the park, scheduled to open in the summer; because they made it possible.
Her dream is to be an astronaut. "I’m definitely going to use this for when I want to go get interviewed for NASA.”
Making a difference, one planet at a time. "I’m doing this for everyone and it’s for all ages and that I really want everyone to have a good time and be able to use their imaginations.”
