Carkeek's New Playground: `Wow'

This 19-foot salmon is quite the catch.

It's purple, has eyeballs as big as baseballs and can swallow children in a single gulp.

The imposing fish slide is the centerpiece of Carkeek Park's expansive new play area, the result of several years of fund raising and planning - not to mention hard physical labor - by parents and neighbors who thought big and had a vision.

Official opening of the playground at the North Seattle park is 10 a.m. tomorrow. The main entrance to the park is west of Third Avenue Northwest and Northwest 110th Street.

The playground recreates the Pipers Creek watershed in ways that are every child's dream: Kids can hide in tiny caves, crawl through a hollowed log, skip over a stream - and slide down the giant salmon.

They can also follow a curving brick path representing salmon streams to help them learn about nature, salmon runs and the history of the Pacific Northwest.

"We wanted a playground where children can use their imagination, be creative and have fun," said Terry Walsh, manager of the project, which was built with $275,000 in public and private contributions.

Three years ago, the play area was muddy and in miserable shape. Children cringed at the rusty slide and ignored the rickety see-saw. It would have been simpler and cheaper to buy typical playground equipment and be done with it, said Walsh, a former school teacher who now operates a glass gallery in Fremont.

Instead, neighbors and parents asked other parents and children what they wanted, and also visited other play parks.

Volunteers then spent weekends creating a path for an adventure trail and packed soil to prevent erosion from the hillside. They cleared a place for the play area and enlisted the help of landscape architect John Barker, who did the design work.

"The neighborhood had this wonderful vision for their park and kept at it," said Department of Parks and Recreation spokeswoman Jennifer Cargal. "They turned their energy and vision into a really unique place."

Said volunteer Nancy Malmgren: "Kids will come back 50 years from now with their grandchildren. They're going to point to the playground and say, `This is where I played and this is where I learned all about salmon.' "

The other day, Walsh took her 4-year-old son, Ian, to the playground. He hid in the caves, climbed a log and bopped up and down on a sea-lion spring ride.

He had just one word to say to his mother, but it was enough to make her see that the playground was a success: "Wow." ----------------------------------------------------------------- Give us your ideas: If you know of a person or project making a difference - from fighting crime to cleaning the environment to helping kids - call the Making It Work voice-mail line, 464-3338, or write describing your nominee: c/o Steve Pierce, The Seattle Times, P.O. Box 70, Seattle, WA 98111. Include a phone number for more information.