LOVELAND, Colo. — “You try and give your kids the whole world.”
That’s exactly what Lauren Bowling set out to do for her 9-year-old son, Miles, who has cerebral palsy and is dependent on a wheelchair.
The Bowling family raised $1.6 million (more than $50,000 came from lemonade stands) to build the Berthoud Adaptive Park in their community, where Miles could play with his brothers and where kids of all abilities could play together, Lauren Bowling said.
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The park at 885 Tenderfoot Drive opened this month and hundreds of families came out to play and see.
The park features a wheelchair-accessible swing; swings with harnesses; play structures with ramps for wheelchairs; camera-activated games, instead of motion-activated games that don’t always recognize wheelchairs; railings and handlebars almost everywhere; a slide with a transfer seat; shaded areas with picnic tables; a permanent lemonade stand and DJ booth; and so much more.
“It was really important to have everything integrated. Little kids to big kids, able-bodied,” Lauren Bowling said, adding that seeing all three of her kids playing together makes her emotional. “Miles can roll around down here while his brothers climb. … Inclusive play for everybody … not a separate space.”
Longmont dad Brad Steward took his 13-year-old son, Leo, to play on a recent Saturday. Steward said it was the first time Leo — who has cerebral palsy and dystonia and is dependent on a wheelchair — had ever been that high on a play structure.
“I never thought I’d get emotional at a playground opening, but … this is truly life-changing,” he said, adding that he is looking forward to all three of his kids playing together.
“Everyone should be included, regardless of abilities.”
It was all smiles, cheers and shrieks as kids ran through the park that resembles a red barn — from swing to slide, zipline to merry go round — and enjoyed ice-cold cups of lemonade.
Bowling said when she started thinking about the playground more than five years ago, the closest accessible option was a 45-minute drive to Fort Collins, Greeley or Westminster.
“He just wants to play with his brothers,” Bowling said, adding that Miles isn’t affected cognitively or verbally.
Since Bowling started planning, another park in Berthoud, Town Park, was renovated to add an ADA-accessible playground, and in 2025, Willow Bend Park opened in Loveland, which also has several accessible playground features.
When the family first moved to Berthoud, their neighborhood was a new development, and Bowling said she reached out to developers to talk about accessible features for her kids to play.
The developer offered to install a swing with a harness, but Bowling said once they saw the $9,000 price tag, she offered to raise funds.
“He said, ‘If you do that, I will match you dollar for dollar, and I will install it for free,’” Bowling said.
“The neighborhood garage sale was coming up, and I said, ‘Let’s just start small with a lemonade stand.’”
At that first lemonade stand in July 2021, the Bowling family raised $11,000. At the next stand in 2022, they raised $13,000; then $17,000 in 2023; and $13,000 in 2024, Lauren Bowling said. The rest of the funding came from donations, other kids’ lemonade stands and grants, according to the project’s website.
“It was Miles getting on stages and talking to groups and telling them why it was so important to him,” Lauren Bowling said, adding that Miles and his brothers were even a little disappointed to hear they raised all the money and would no longer have to host lemonade stands.
Bowling said the developers, Edwards Development and later Farmstead, were immediately moved and said they wanted to build more than just a swing for the community. From there, the Bowlings continued raising funds. The developer offered a larger plot of land and connected Lauren to Star Playgrounds, which designed the park.
“I am just a mom who asked a question, and 1,001 people said, ‘Yes, how can we help?’ and then you kept pushing me and reminded me how important this all is,” Bowling said during the ribbon-cutting.
“Here we are as Miles asked me to ask Siri last night, five years, one month and 19 days later … and we get to play.”
Berthoud Mayor William Karspeck said the Bowlings showed how much impact a single family can have on an entire community.
“Because of you, children who may have once had to watch from the sidelines now have a place designed for them to join their friends, laugh, explore and play together,” he said during the ceremony.
Star Playgrounds CEO Erin Starr, who designed the park, said the facility is truly for kids of varying abilities and ages, adding that they will be able to use different features as they get older.
Starr and her father, Mark Ashland, an owner of the company, said the most important features when building an accessible playground are ramps to make everything accessible; fencing; ground-level based play; unitary surfaces; and shade.
Lauren Bowling said Miles would like to continue yearly lemonade stands at the park (at the permanent ‘Smiles Lemonade Stand’) to benefit causes he is passionate about. Last Saturday, proceeds went toward Freedom Service Dogs in honor of Miles’ own service dog, Ravioli.
Miles spent some time showing his friends the swing with a wheelchair platform, which he could enter and exit himself, and he could swing back and forth himself by pulling a rope.
The 9-year-old said that putting the play structure in the neighborhood, rather than his backyard, allowed it to not only be bigger but also let so many more kids play.
“It is the best thing ever,” Miles said.
© 2026 Loveland Reporter-Herald
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