2022 MAKE A SPLASH! GRANT CONTEST WINNER'S INSTALLATION: Rotary Splash Island at Sammy Haggard Park

In 2022, we co-hosted our third annual Make a SPLASH! Grant Contest with Inside Edge Safety Surfaces to award a municipality or non-profit organization in the United States with an all-expenses-paid splash pad surface. Our intent with this contest is to uplift communities across the country each year with beautiful splash pad surfacing designs that add increased safety for residents.

We received a record number of submissions and there were many deserving entries, but one of the applications we received stood out:

“‘Is there any place in the county that I can take my toddler to allow them to be comfortable in the water?’ is a frequent question posed to the Chamber of Commerce, Recreation Department, and anyone working with young children. This rural county in northeast Georgia has no public pools, splash pads, or similar venues closer than 30 – 60 minutes of its residents. However, water safety and early experiences are the focus of pediatrician’s guidance and health department PSAs due to statistics about children drowning. Enter the members of the county’s Rotary Club in 2020 who determined the need for a safe, affordable venue to meet the needs of young families and the large number of grandparents who are rearing grandchildren. The Rotary Club partnered with the Madison County Recreation Department to fund the construction of a splash pad at Sammy Haggard Park. Over an 18-month period, the entities worked together on location, design, color scheme to blend with the colors used internationally by Rotary Clubs. Concurrently, the Rotary Club met their goal of $125,000 to bring their dream to reality at the grand opening Memorial Day weekend 2021.

Folks were ecstatic, use far exceeded expectations, and then reality set in. OOPS! The concrete surface gets hot, sunscreen washes off and makes the surface slick, and the rough surface and toddlers’ toes are not compatible. Ensuring the facility is properly sanitized is hampered by the concrete surface’s porosity. It has become clear that specifications were short-sighted when planning an achievable funding campaign for a small group that immediately faced “Covid shutdowns.” The Recreation Department manages the facility well, having developed sanitizing schedules, put in temporary surfaces for walkways to eliminate slips from sunscreen overspray, and ensuring preventive maintenance is prioritized. Revenue loss for the department during the Covid shutdown and, now, the increase in price for supplies and materials required to run the department and rebuild programs eliminates budgeting for a surface for the splash pad in the next several years. A Life Floor surface will resolve the concerns of parents and caregivers who find flip-flops and toddlers playing on a wet surface creates unnecessary bruises and scrapes. A proper surface will, for years to come, preserve the efforts of the Rotary Club and their many donors to provide a much needed and welcomed venue. Without this grant, only stop-gap measures can be used. That reality will undoubtedly result in the deterioration of this one-of-a kind facility at our Department. Our research had concluded that Life Floor met our needs. This grant for the proper surface will ensure our children have the safest and best venue possible.”

- Shelley Parham, Madison County Recreation Director

Before: Rotary Splash Island at Sammy Haggard Park, Concrete Substrate

After: Rotary Splash Island at Sammy Haggard Park, Life Floor Safety Surfacing

This entry resonated with members of the Life Floor and Inside Edge Safety Surfaces teams who reviewed entries and collaboratively chose this facility as the winner.

Our 2022 Grant Contest entrants chose from 6 unique pre-designed themes that would be custom fit to their project scope. Madison County chose the Under The Sea option which features a beautiful triangle gradient Pattern in our Lagoon Theme. Sea Life and Marine Inlays can be seen across the splash pad in bright contrasting colors such as Limelight, Sunshine, Goldfish, Platypus, and Aqua.

The Make a SPLASH! Grant Contest’s co-host as well as Life Floor’s North American Preferred Installation Partner, Inside Edge Safety Surfaces, completed installation of the new surface in March of 2023. The crew worked with a high degree of professionalism and expertise to create a beautiful final result.

We hope this new safety surface will uplift and transform the way kids play at Rotary Splash Island in Danielsville, Georgia. We can't wait to hear the stories of how this installation will continue to benefit the community for years to come!

We’re thankful for the opportunity to give this deserving community a new Life Floor safety surface and hope for many seasons of fun to come! Thank you to Inside Edge Safety Surfaces for co-hosting this contest with us and for the expert installation.

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THE 4TH ANNUAL MAKE A SPLASH! GRANT CONTEST

The next contest will go live on August 30th. Sign up for notifications so you don’t miss this short entry period and enter for a chance to win an all-expenses paid Life Floor surface for your splash pad.

A THEMED COLLABORATION WITH WESTPORT POOLS AND MEXICO, MO

It's an exciting season for our team as we watch so many newly renovated facilities reopen across the country. One of our most recent installations at the Fairgrounds Aquatic Center in Mexico, MO features both a zero-depth entry and a separate splash pad.

The City of Mexico, MO had originally been working with Westport Pools, one of our Registered Aquatic Partners, on this project. When they mentioned their interest in a resilient safety surfacing solution, Life Floor was recommended, and our team was looped into the design process.

We worked collaboratively with the city on several flooring design options that would add aquatic theming to both their zero depth entry and splash pad. The intent was for the safety surfacing to complement their spray features and play structure on site. Ultimately, the designs they selected achieved their goals of mimicking a seashore for the zero depth entry and a body of water for the splash pad while also staying within budget.

The design of this particular zero depth entry is unique in that it combines a triangle gradient for the "sand" and "water" zones while also featuring a clean, curvy custom cut edge separating the two. Because Life Floor is manufactured as 2' x 2' tiles, cutting curves into any design results in increased overages as the squares are trimmed away. By selectively choosing to only use this effect for the shoreline, the city was able to achieve their design intent without the added expense of creating the entire gradient effect out of curves. Marine inlays were included to augment the theming. Fish and seahorses can be found in the "water" while crabs and starfish can be found on the "sand." 

The simple design of the splash pad uses our popular High Tide 301 Theme and Pattern. This tile arrangement is one of our most cost-effective options to create the effect of water and is often enhanced by thematic inlays like the fish shown here. 

Collaborating with Westport Pools and the City of Mexico, MO throughout this iterative process was extremely rewarding for our team. We're appreciative of their partnership and their shared commitment of creating safer and more beautiful aquatic spaces. 

To learn more about how you can work with our team to enhance your aquatic facility, contact us today!