All Abilities Play gets major fundraising assist

Aug 11, 2025 By CJ HADDAD 6 min read

All Abilities Play committee members Lindsey Harper, Rachelle Lee, Project Lead Nicole Buday, Kelly Slover and Stephanie Listowski Wong. PROVIDED

Owen Buday enjoys some time at the park. PROVIDED

A driven Cape Coral mother along with partner advocates working to bring a first-of-its-kind playground to Cape Coral now have teamed up with a major non-profit to raise funds. 

Collaboratory has established a new fiscal sponsorship with “All Abilities Play,” a Cape Coral-based initiative dedicated to building the city’s first truly inclusive playground for individuals of all ages and abilities.

The organization’s mission is to create welcoming, thoughtfully designed spaces where children and adults with physical, intellectual, sensory, and developmental differences can play, connect, and thrive side-by-side with their peers.

All Abilities Play lead Nicole Buday is a Cape Coral resident with an 11-year-old son named Owen who has cerebral palsy. Buday, who also has a 14-year-old, said she found it difficult to go to a local park where both of her children could enjoy the space. 

So she, along with Lindsey Harper, Rachelle Lee, Stephanie Listowski Wong and Kelly Slover, took on the task of bringing an accessible-for-all playground to Cape Coral. 

A key word in this project is adaptive and not just ADA compliant. Buday said there is no equipment that is truly available for a person in a wheelchair or has a prosthetic.

She reached out to the city’s Parks and Recreation Department in early 2024 to see what could be done. 

Now, the future park has a future location: Lake Meade Park. 

“The plan is for the city to provide the land and maintain the park once it’s build,” Buday said. “We’re also hoping they can provide some funding.”

Buday said the city’s Parks and Recreation Department is working to get the park in the FY 2026 budget. 

“Ideally, if we can get a certain amount of money and show the city that we’re putting a lot of effort in to raise the money to make this happen, that we could ask for a match from the city,” Buday said. “Even for state funding, too. We’re on a mission to raise the money and to do it without the city — they’re giving us the land and other things.”

The partnership with Collaboratory allows the group to apply for larger grants and receive tax-deductible donations to make its vision a reality — bringing it closer to its $1 million fundraising goal. All Abilities Play has raised almost $25,000.

“Collaboratory is proud to announce this fiscal sponsorship,” said Dr. Dawn Belamarich, president and CEO of Collaboratory. “It’s a wonderful opportunity for All Abilities Play to expand their reach and help create Lee County’s first inclusive playground.”

Buday said Lake Meade Park is a great location, as a new YMCA will also be part of the park project. 

“It will draw a lot of families and people of all ages to that park,” Buday said. “This playground is going to be designed to accommodate not just children, but adults and elderly people. There’s nothing like it here in Lee or Collier County. People build inclusive playgrounds… but it’s not really, really inclusive. When I bring my child (to local inclusive parks), there’s only a few things he may be able to do sitting down in his wheelchair. They’re not thinking about the bigger picture of: Who are we making this inclusive for?”

Buday said inclusion is beyond just physical ability. 

“There are people that are blind or deaf. They need accommodation also,” she said. “People, when they’re designing these playgrounds, they’re not thinking about all of these things. What’s going to set our playground apart from anything that’s ever been seen in this area is we’re putting all of those components together. We’re going to have communication signs for people who are blind. We’re going to have slides for people that have cochlear implants. When a person who is deaf have a cochlear implant in their head, they cannot go down regular slides because of static electricity. There are special slides that are manufactured so it doesn’t cause interference with hearing devices. We’re thinking about all of the people, not just a handful.”

Other parts of the park will include accessible pathways, inclusive restrooms, clear signage, quiet spaces, adaptive seating, sensory play areas, wheelchair-accessible swings, bucket swings with high backs and harnesses, wheelchair-accessible merry-go-rounds, wide slides with gentle slopes, supportive seesaws, and ramped play structures. 

The All Abilities Play committee is made up of a physical and occupational therapist, special education teacher, and parents of children who have disabilities.

“We’re brainstorming on what really is needed, and what’s going to benefit people, and the cause and effect of things,” Buday said. “Our team knows that certain pieces of equipment will give the stimulus input, or a calming effect — all of these things are really important that are left out of a lot of playground designs.”

The city is still working on the designs for Lake Meade Park, and Buday said there will be a larger footprint for the playground. The exact size of the park is to be determined, but Buday said the city is willing to give them as much room as necessary. Buday said parks of the type around the country are usually 20,000 square feet. Many of the parks that are out there that All Abilities Play is trying to emulate started by grass-roots means and non-profits working with cities. 

“We want to go big,” she said. “If we’re going to do it, we want to do it full out.”

Buday said an individual reached out to her following a Cape Coral Breeze story in December of 2024 about All Abilities Play, stating his wife is blind and is unable to take their child to a park and play with their daughter because the park in inaccessible for the mother. 

“People think it’s just for children, but it’s not,” Buday said. “It’s for adults that are disabled that have healthy children that they want to play with and make memories with. It’s for a grandparent who wants to take their grandchild to a park, but maybe they can’t because they have a walker or cane and the surface is not accessible at all. It’s about everybody. That’s why it’s called All Abilities, and it’s for all ages. People think playgrounds are for children, but who brings children to these playgrounds? We have to think bigger picture and who is being left out.”

Buday said the goal is to have the funds and approval by the FY 2027 budget and to break ground in late 2026 or early 2027. The park could be constructed in phases. 

Collaboratory is a regional community foundation with an evolved mission committed to coordinating the solving of Southwest Florida’s major social problems by 2040.

To donate to All Abilities Play, visit www.collaboratory.org/allabilitiesplay.

For more information on All Abilities Play, visit allabilitiesplay.org.

To reach CJ HADDAD, please email cjhaddad@breezenewspapers.com