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Family, friends and Clearfield City officials help 12-year-old Rosili Olson, second from right, cut the ribbon on a playground at Bicentennial Park that she helped to design Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024.

Rob Nielsen, Standard-Examiner

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One of Rosili Olson's concept drawings for a new playground.

Image supplied, Clearfield City

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The new playground at Clearfield's Bicentennial Park, pictured Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024.

Rob Nielsen, Standard-Examiner

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CLEARFIELD — Nearly a year ago, 11-year-old Rosili Olson wanted a playground that she could share with her siblings in the park near her Clearfield home.

But rather than be content with simply dreaming about the idea, Rosili put in the effort of drawing up her concepts and taking them before the city itself.

On Tuesday, the ribbon was cut on the playground that she helped bring to fruition at Bicentennial Park in Clearfield.

“It’s even better than I imagined,” Rosili — now 12 — said of the new playground, which was already full of playing children early Tuesday evening. “It’s so beautiful.”

Eric Howes, head of parks and recreation for Clearfield City, told the audience gathered for the ribbon cutting that the story of this new playground started with a social media posting about a coming attraction in another park entirely.

“Last fall, we were putting in a playground at Thornrock Park,” he said. “We had designed it, we had prepped it and it was ordered and it was on its way. Then we put pictures of that on social media and we got the word out that it was coming.”

While he said that reviews of the incoming playground were generally positive, one person wasn’t so sure.

“One person wasn’t super happy with that playground,” he said. “When Rosili saw that playground, she realized, ‘This is going to be a hard playground for my little sisters to play with me on.’ So she decided to do something very positive about that. She decided she was going to play playground designer and put her best thoughts into a playground design.”

Howes said Rosili took the time to draw up plans for her ideal playground from different angles and with labels and detail.

“She convinced her mother to bring her over to City Hall to talk to somebody about the problems she had,” Howes said. “Rosili came in and she was determined to just talk and explain what she had done. So she walked me through every one of those designs and all of the reasons these designs were the right playground that we should be putting in Thornrock.”

Rosili’s mother, Annie Olson, said she was amazed with how seriously the city took Rosili’s ideas.

“Rosili’s a very strong-willed and very wonderful person,” she said. “When she brought it up, I thought, ‘This is a big deal.’ We’ve lived in Clearfield her entire life — we moved in when she was 6 months — so we’re really invested in Clearfield City itself. All I did was call and say, ‘Hey, do me a favor. Would you let my daughter come in?’ They were so gracious and so kind, a lot more than I ever could’ve imagined, for sure.”

But as impressive as Rosili’s drawings and drive had been to city officials, with the I’s dotted and T’s crossed on installing a new playground at Thornrock, there was nothing the city could do to change it.

However, Howes said another option was quickly on the table — Bicentennial Park.

“We were going to put a playground here, but that was as far as we had gone,” he said. “It was budgeted but we didn’t have any specifics. When Rosili came to the city building and asked to talk to somebody about a playground, we sat down with her. After seeing all the effort she put into all of those drawings knowing we’d already ordered the playground for the park right by her house, the next best thing was to say, ‘We’ve got a playground coming in next year. Let’s use what you’ve done and build something there.’ It was just simply asking her, ‘Do you want to be involved?’ She said ‘yes’ and her mom was committed to bringing her every time. We met three or four times, reviewed different plans at different stages until we got here.”

Rosili said she never would’ve imagined the playground would become a reality, but she wanted something her siblings could enjoy as well.

“I love them and we’re all four years apart,” she said. “They’re both unique and different and I wanted them to have fun and not be bored the rest of their lives.”

Howes said it’s rare he sees people approach the city with an idea they’d like to see through while showing such dedication.

“I don’t see this from adults very often, to be very honest” he said. “I was just so impressed with Rosili. She saw something she didn’t like and she decided, ‘I want to do something about it.’ Not just draw her drawings and make her feel better, she made sure her mom brought her to City Hall. … She just put in so much effort, I felt like it ought to be rewarded.”

Rosili said, ultimately, if people want to see changes in their town, they can follow her example.

“They can go to someone and ask for help or they can call someone or go to the city,” she said.