Anchorage’s First Intergenerational Health and Healing Park to Receive Outdoor Music Equipment Funded by AARP
The Anchorage Park Foundation and Anchorage Parks and Recreation will be able to install five additional pieces of outdoor music equipment at Folker Park, Anchorage’s first intergenerational health and healing park, through a grant announced today by AARP. Folker Park was intentionally designed to support integration into nature near health care facilities and includes wheel-chair accessible 8-foot-wide paved paths, wheel-chair accessible picnic tables, inclusive adult exercise equipment and an accessible nature-themed tot lot in the shape of logs. The park’s proximity to the University Medical District gives families and caregivers the opportunity to take a break from hospital visits. The park is across the street from Providence Horizon House, a senior housing complex that offers assisted living and a full-time activities coordinator who schedules activities with residents at the park regularly.
Music has been part of the park plan from the beginning and is a dream come true for many neighbors. Music therapy involves creating, singing, moving to and/or listening to music in ways that have been shown to promote physical and psychological healing. Upon installation of the equipment, the Anchorage Park Foundation envisions all members of the Anchorage community, ranging from residents of the nearby senior living home to therapists from the hospital to local musicians, to utilize the space. Maintaining their commitment to ensuring health and wellbeing among Anchorage residents, the Anchorage Park Foundation continues to create a park that encourages social connection and outdoor involvement. Read full press release.
