Community Corner

VIEWFINDER: Rotary Gives Playground a Boost

San Clemente Sunrise Rotary hands over $10,000 for Courtney's SandCastle, a playground accessible to disabled children.

This week's Viewfinder is a submission from the San Clemente Sunrise Rotary: The club donated $10,000 to help fund Courtney’s SandCastle, a playground accessible to kids of all abilities.

“This donation brings us one step closer to realizing Courtney Faye Smith’s dream of constructing this universal playground in San Clemente,” said Mina Santoro, head of Courtney’s SandCastle Committee, in a release.

Smith, the park's namesake, suffers from a muscular disease than confines her to a wheelchair; the idea for the park was conceived when she was 5. Smith is now 14.

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Originally, Courtney's Sandcastle was going to be on the Marblehead Coastal site. After the , the city made the decision to move it.

The 30,000 square-foot universal playground is being constructed on land provided by the city of San Clemente at its 45-acre sports park and aquatic center, which is now under construction at 987 Ave. Vista Hermosa, says a release from the Rotary club.

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The playground will allow disabled kids to play alongside able-bodied ones and offer features that disabled adults can use for theraputic purposes.

A fundraising drive continues for the unfunded phase II of the playground project.

Courtney herself, the child who inspired the effort to construct the park, attended this week's Sunrise Rotary breakfast meeting to accept the check on behalf of the Courtney’s SandCastle fundraising committee.

The $10,000 will go to help pay for an interactive water feature at the park.

If interested in making a donation, call Don Glasgow, at 949-481-0116 or Mina Santoro at 949-874-9744 or visit courtneyssandcastle.com.


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