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Photo Credit: MC2 Eli Buguey, SUBASE Kings Bay Public Affairs Office

and have access to the base,” he said. “You have to drive to
Jacksonville [Fla.], which is about 25 to 30 minutes south,
to the north end of Jacksonville to find that entertainment. If
you want to go to have your kid’s birthday party at Chuck E.
Cheese, you have to go to Jacksonville, and it is an hour away.”
Playground equipment supplier Soft Play was chosen to
put in the playground. “We worked directly with them on
the design of the playground into the space we had,” he said.
“They did a very good job working with us because it was
kind of like a Tetris game because we wanted some height to
the playground,” added Hutchens, referring to the video game
where different shaped pieces are put together to try and form
a whole. “It took some creative design
for that space to be maximized in how
big it could be in that space.”
The facility has $150,000 in play-
ground equipment. “It is kind of a
Chick-fil-A playground on steroids,”
said Spinnenweber.
In addition to the play aspects, MWR
wanted to make sure to have some edu-
cational elements in the facility. “We
knew that there wasn’t a library on base
anymore,” he said. “There used to be,
but it closed down years ago. That is
where we got the idea of a children’s
library. It is a small area where mom can
take young kids and homeschoolers and
read books to them. We teamed up with
our Child Youth Programs to do that.”
MWR also has special reading pro-
grams and character days. “We have a lot
of character days,” said Spinnenweber.
“We will have 100 kids show up during
spring break. We have had Minions,
Cinderella and other characters.”
The craft room has self-directed
crafts and on some days has staff to
lead groups in special crafts for holidays
and other events.
While the kids have lots to do and
play, MWR made sure that parents
would be happy too, including Wi-Fi.
—Continued

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