Mom Raises $1M to Build All-Inclusive Playground for Kids Like Her Son (Exclusive)

Throughout his young life, Luke Madson, 6, of Louisville, Ky., has been accustomed to sitting out while other children have fun at the local playground. He was born with a spinal cord injury that requires him to use a walker or wheelchair so that he can move on his own — and that poses a challenge for most playgrounds.

“About 99% of playgrounds that we visit have wood chips,” mom Sarah Madson, 36, tells PEOPLE. ”So those are not places that we can go, unfortunately. It has to be smooth and wheel friendly.”

Madson’s dream of an inclusive, all-abilities playground for Luke and other children with disabilities led to the creation of Panther Park, which opened on July 29 at Our Savior Lutheran Church in Louisville. The project was spearheaded by Madson’s nonprofit organization, the DREAM Foundation of Kentucky.

“I think it’s every parent’s dream to see their kids have fun and play with others and have friends and not be isolated,” Madson says. “It’s been amazing, but I’m gonna tell you, it’s the generous donors. They did it all. I asked the question, but they gave the money over and over and over again.”

Originally from Minnesota, Madson, her husband Tim and their three children— Luke, Naomi and Ruth —  moved to Louisville four years ago because of the city’s highly rated pediatric neuro recovery program.

But as time went by and their son got older, Madson realized they had a major playground problem on their hands.

“My husband and I will carry him around.” she says. “He’s reaching the age where he doesn’t want us to do that. It’s not cool to have your mom carry you around the playground and he wants to play by himself.”

“He won’t necessarily say it, which is almost worse,” she adds. “We got to the point where it was like, ‘We can’t do this anymore, carrying him everywhere because he doesn’t want us to.’ So he would just not play.”

It took raising $1 million in donations and 18 months for Panther Park to go from an idea to a reality. Among the new playground’s features include flat rubber surfacing, ramps, an adaptive swing and musical components.

“If a child has cochlear implants or hearing aids, sometimes static from a slide will bother them,” she says. So [our slide is] sensory friendly for children with sensory issues.”

“We also built a whole pavilion with shade,” she adds, noting that a lot of people with special needs tend to overheat easily. Additionally, all the picnic tables have wheelchair sides “so you can park two wheelchairs at each of the picnic tables.”

“We tried to think of something for everyone,” she says.

Her son also had a say in the playground’s design.

“When we almost got to the end, I was about to hit the ‘order’ button and he’s like, ‘Well, where’s the twisty slide? It doesn’t have a twisty slide. What kind of playground doesn’t have a twisty slide?’ ” she recalls. “So we added that last minute.”

Professional golfer Justin Thomas, who is from Louisville and has a namesake charitable foundation, is among the donors who contributed to the Panther Park project. 

“I reached out to him with a hope and a prayer that maybe since he was from here, he would consider it,” Madson recalls. “His mom and I communicated back and forth.”

“I’ll never forget the night I was sitting on the couch watching a show with my husband,” she continues. “I got an email from her and it said, ‘We’ll take care of the preschool playground portion of the project,’ which was a significant amount of money.”

“I screamed, I was so excited,” she adds. “They came on board and they came to the grand opening, which was awesome. He’s a really nice guy.”

Of course, seeing Luke play at the park on opening day was a meaningful moment for the mom.

“It was emotional for me,” she recalls. “Luke got to run up, and be with all the other kids. So that was the dream for me that he wouldn’t be excluded and other kids could participate and no one has to sit and watch someone else play.”

She adds, “it was a very beautiful moment for my family.”

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Panther Park was the DREAM Foundation’s 15th accessible playground project with the next one scheduled for the Louisville neighborhood of Clifton.

“They have a special needs school that has no playground at all, and they were trying to fund to build a playground,” she says, “We said, ‘Let’s make it bigger,” let’s make it accessible.’ ”

“We actually are pretty nearly fully funded for that project and we will be ordering in November,” she adds. “So that one, hopefully, we will open in the summer or spring 2026.”