Army of volunteers working to renovate Alpharetta's beloved Wacky World Playground

It's been almost 30 years since Peggy Lindenbaum helped build Alpharetta's first Wacky World playground. She was one of 3,000 volunteers who contributed to the effort. Now she and others are back rebuilding a new version of the playground for the next generations of children and families.

Lindenbaum said she had so much fun during the 1997 construction effort that signing up to help revive the park now was a no-brainer.

"I just had such a good time," she recalled. "I think I worked four or five of the days last time, and it was just so fulfilling to work with people you don't know, and everybody got along, and, you know, you just pitch in, and you end up with this beautiful play area."

The 1997 playground inside Wills Park was built with wood and mulch landscaping.

"It served the community so well," said Morgan Rodgers, the director of recreation, parks, and cultural services for the city of Alpharetta. "But the playground was tired."  

The city is rebuilding the beloved playground on the same original site in Wills Park to make it more accessible for children and adults with disabilities. Officials note that they're particularly working to make the playground easier to use and traverse for those with mobility issues.

Rodgers said the mulch surface had posed challenges for people who struggle to walk, especially those using walkers and wheelchairs. The designers, Play By Design, surveyed children at Alpharetta Elementary School about what they wanted to see in the new design, including swings, seesaws, and slides.

Wacky World's $1.5 million rebuild was passed in a 2023 bond referendum for the city. It's part of the city's larger, $13 million refresh of Wills Park overall. Because people volunteered to rebuild and donations to the project, officials say the city is saving around $600,000 on the project.  

Many remember the original Wacky World fondly.

"It was just a magnificent wooden playhouse that was just huge," Lindenbaum said. "I mean, there were places to crawl in and swings and things to walk on."

"Everybody has a Wacky World story because it was always looked at as a destination playground," Rodgers said.

Rodgers worked for the city of Roswell when the first playground was built and got to watch its construction in real time. He says that he and other city officials in surrounding communities were so impressed by the original project that it inspired other similar efforts in areas like Smyrna and Woodstock.

"Whether their grandfather helped build Wacky World, or their father was the first one to play on Wacky World back in the day, everything in Wills Park is kind of connected and held together by Wacky World."

Rodgers says his own 7 and 3-year-old granddaughters love the playground, and ask him every day when it will reopen.

"It's real personal to me because my grandkids do live in the community and they're going to play on this playground, so I just can't wait until we can open it up and let 'em just have fun."

Lindenbaum, who lives in Woodstock, says efforts like this give her a sense of purpose.

"I retired a couple years ago, and I haven't quite found my niche on what I want to do," she said. "So, I'll volunteer like this close to home, and then I'll see the results, and I'll bring my grandkids to it. That's satisfying."

Construction on the new Wacky World is scheduled to finish by March 25. The city expects to open the playground for children in May.