The Columbus Blue Jackets Foundation and Columbus Early Learning Centers on Tuesday installed a new playground at the South Side Early Learning Center, giving preschool-age children at 280 Reeb Ave a safe, age-appropriate place to play after a 2024 groundcover fire damaged the old area.
The upgraded space was built with a $175,000 contribution from the foundation’s grant program health and safety pillar and features a custom-designed play structure with Blue Jackets-themed elements, including a climbable version of Stinger, hockey stick posts and team imagery. The playground also includes two covered areas and a soft turf surface, with the turf installation supported by a HUD Community Development Block Grant from the City of Columbus.
For children at the center, the difference is immediate: a damaged patch of outdoor space has become a place built for climbing, balancing, running and full-body movement. Denise Hurley said the goal was to give children room to build core strength through play, adding that too many young children struggle with basic movements such as jumping with both feet and deserve the chance to develop those skills in a setting designed for joy.
The project also reflects a broader push by the foundation to create neighborhood play spaces across central Ohio. Tara Battiato said the foundation is proud to work with Columbus Early Learning Centers to create places where children can play, imagine and just be kids, and said the new site is the 14th Blue Jackets-themed play space in central Ohio. Midstates Recreation designed the playground and has partnered with the foundation to create and install 13 additional playgrounds across the region, including in Delaware, Ohio State Park, the YWCA Columbus Family Center, Krumm Park and Driving Park.
Additional support came from the Crane Family Foundation and RSM, while Midstates Recreation, Blue Jackets staff and volunteers, and Columbus Early Learning Centers staff built the playground and helped with landscaping. The result is more than a repair job after the 2024 fire. It is a rebuilt outdoor learning space that gives preschoolers a place to move, explore and use the kind of equipment that had been missing for a year.
