Sugar Sand Science Playground Chosen One Of 10 Best Nationally

The nation now understands what the Boca Raton Community has known for decades: Sugar Sand Park's Science Playground is elite.

USA Today named the Science Playground one of the 10 Best Public Playgrounds in the country.

“The Science Playground is a unique, beloved feature of Boca Raton,” District chair Bob Rollins said. “This is another great honor for our community.”

USA Today nominated the playground at District-owned Sugar Sand along with 19 others from around the country for their Readers' Choice Award. Over roughly a four-week period visitors to USA Today's 10 Best page could vote once per day for their favorite park

The Science Playground beat playgrounds from parks in much larger cities, including New York, Los Angeles and Seattle.

Sugar Sand's Science Playground wouldn't exist without an extraordinary effort from the Boca Raton community.

In 1993 a group of Boca Raton residents requested that District Commissioners build a playground combining education and recreation at the park. Commissioners quickly agreed, relying heavily on community input for the design and creation of the new playground.

To choose which features to include organizers turned to the people who would use it most, asking local children to describe their fantasy playground.

The District contracted with Playgrounds by Leathers to turn those fantasies into reality.

Once designed, the Boca Raton community's spirit of volunteerism kicked into high gear.

Construction began on a May Saturday, with about 400 volunteers arriving for duty. People from across the city donated their services as carpenters, painters, cement layers – basically every skill required for a construction project – to help create the new science playground.

The playground includes a climbing structure, a splash pad, but the most identifiable feature of the playground is the giant human face.

From inside the head looking out, visitors could see into the giant eyeball that turned the playground upside down - as the human eye sees an image before brain puts it right-side-up. Looking inside the face's replica of human mouth, they'd see illuminated taste buds.

It is believed more than 1,000 volunteers contributed their time to the project. 

The one-acre, 25-foot high Science Playground opened in December of 1995. It only cost $500,000, plus the donated materials. When it opened there were fewer than 10 such playgrounds in the nation.

Along with climbing inside the human head, playground visitors can crawl under the ribs of a Florida Imperial Mammoth in the fossil pit, take a spaceship to Mars, explore a DNA double helix and an exposed coral reef, fire water cannons, and race flashing lights that simulate the speed of different animals.

The Science Playground underwent renovations in 2017 making it more accessible to children of differing abilities. The jungle gym in particular enjoyed a redesigned, making it fully accessible.

Nearly all of the wood within the facility also needed to be replaced.

It has withstood the test of time, remaining a destination for children, parents and grandparents.