Wheeee! Nonagenarian’s gift brings fun to playground with safe, new spiral slide | community

Playground equipment should be accessible to people throughout their lives. Accessibility and sensory benefits create inclusive play spaces that are “exciting, challenging and help kids of all ages and abilities enjoy playing together,” according to Miracle Recreation.

Walla Wallan Bonnie Fine, 98, seconds those sentiments. While discussing the issue with daughter and son-in-law, Cherie and Tom McNabb of Vancouver, Washington, she said, “Why not have play equipment for older adults, too?” Play is not just for children.

A good question to ask as Tom McNabb, an Oregon sales representative at Cascade Recreation, is familiar with playground equipment and safety concerns.

Bonnie and late husband Amos Fine’s four younger kids attended Berney School, where they rode on the metal spinners and other old-time but dangerous toys anchored in concrete, asphalt or compact dirt surfaces, Cherie McNabb said.

The Fines moved in 1964 to Walla Walla, where Amos Fine served as Pacific Power & Light Co. lines superintendent.

Playgrounds have become safer these days, with improvements in the implements and in forgiving surfaces. However, there’s a long way to go.

Cherie McNabb said many play areas still have wood equipment that ages, degrades, splinters and grows moss that can cause slipping.

“Fall protection is so important. A lot of schools don’t understand. The thickness is important so you bounce rather than hit hard dirt,” Bonnie McNabb said. “Some choices aren’t smart or inclusive for older people and people with challenges,” she said.

The US Consumer Product Safety Commission notes that such play areas should “maintain a minimum depth of 9 inches of loose-fill materials such as wood mulch/chips, engineered wood fiber, or shredded/recycled rubber mulch for equipment up to 8 feet high, and 9 inches of sand or pea gravel for equipment up to 5 feet high.”

More often now, playground planners are focusing on equipment for adults and special-needs kids, too, such as wheelchair-friendly swings and other structures.

Locally, the new Vista Terrace Park playground in the Adair Vista neighborhood, 920 Mountain Park Drive north of US Highway 12, is intended to be accessible to everyone.

Bonnie Fine is a member of Assumption Catholic Church and noticed the poor condition of the slide at Assumption School. In fact, it was out of compliance and had zero fall protection, Cherie McNabb said.

So in 2019, Fine donated the funds to acquire and install a new, bright red and blue, spiral-style slide at Assumption School plus engineered wood fiber specifically for fall protection, Cherie McNabb said. The slide is attached to existing play structures.

“Then COVID hit, and no one could play on the equipment,” Cherie McNabb said.

She took photos of her mother on her Sept. 24 birthday at the slide. Fine will be 99 this year.

She’s quite active, lives independently, drives her car, goes to church and is intent on donating some of her goods to benefit the schools, Bonnie McNabb said.

Fine is involved in the Walla Walla Rose Society. The Rose Garden in Pioneer Park, at the corner of Division and Whitman streets, honors Amos Fine, who died in 2008.

She works for an hour a day in her yard, stays mobile and moves around.

“The more active we stay, the longer we live,” Bonnie McNabb said. “And, she’s pretty darn smart.”

Until COVID-19 hit in March 2020, Bonnie had served for years as a tour guide at Fort Walla Walla Museum.

She is a lifelong homemaker, led a 4-H group and worked in a bank before she and Amos wed.

Some will remember Amos Fine as the lead fiddler when musicians gathered to play old-time music at the Walla Walla Senior Center. He also repaired fiddles, Cherie McNabb said.

In addition to Cherie, the Fine children are Steve Fine of Mount Angel, Oregon; Candy Jones of Vancouver, Washington; Gini Walker of Troutdale, Oregon; Ann Patterson of Tacoma and John Fine of Raleigh, North Carolina.