A West Pikeland playground honoring a baby who died will be saved after public outcry
Two proposals advanced by the board this week would leave the memorial sandbox untouched.
A playground sandbox, built by a grieving parent after the death of his 7-day-old son, would be preserved under updated proposals to renovate a West Pikeland Township park.
Plans unanimously advanced Monday by the West Pikeland Township board of supervisors would leave “Cayden’s Corner” in Pine Creek Park, where it opened in 2023.
A packed meeting room applauded when Rick Tralies, a landscape architect at Natural Lands who has been consulting on the playground for the township, said, “It will not be touched.”
“Some of the first iterations we did didn’t quite hit the mark,” he said. “So we went back, and we made revisions.”
Earlier this year, township officials considered relocating the sandpit as part of the larger park renovation, saying it was recommended by the playground consultants. It prompted outcry from the community.
The supervisors on Monday advanced two proposals with different equipment manufacturers for the consultants to price out before they select a final plan. Officials also requested that the township’s advisory parks and recreation committee make a recommendation on a preferred design, after the committee pushed both plans forward to the board at its last meeting, declining to select one.
The new playground, funded by a roughly $230,000 grant and private donations, is expected to add upgraded equipment including slides and swings, a nature play area, landscaping, and other updates. It will be “bigger, more modern” than the existing playground, which Tralies called “at the end of its useful life.”
The sandbox was constructed by Ryan Leithead after he and his wife Denise lost their newborn son, Cayden, in 2022. Leithead worked with the township to design and install the sandpit, as an early foray into renovating the decades-old park. A memorial sign, with a black-and-white photo of Cayden’s hand with his parents’, is posted at the play area.
“After months of battling a conversation that should have never happened, we’re finally preserving [it], so I celebrate that,” Leithead said at Monday’s meeting.
Leithead, who serves on the township’s parks and recreation committee, opposed the work of the consultants and requested they reconsider the proposals, pressing for a third option to be on the table that he argues better aligns with the community’s desires while updating the park.
The Parks and Recreation committee is expected to discuss the proposals at its next meeting on Thursday.
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