My name is Toody Maher and I’m a resident of Richmond, California.
Growing up, our family “lived” in our neighborhood park. When we woke up in the morning, my mother would take my brothers, sister, and me to our neighborhood park in Montreal, Canada. Late morning, we would come home for lunch, take a nap, and then return to the park in the afternoon.
Everyone we knew in the neighborhood––all the kids, all the families––went to this same park every day. There was always something going on! It was there we formed friendships that lasted for decades; it was there we explored, challenged, and discovered life; it was there we found community.
As I drive around Richmond today, I see so many little-used, little-loved, public parks. These energetic hubs of community life are lying in front of our eyes, dormant, yet bristling with power and potential.
I was so moved by the sorry state of the city parks near my house that in January 2007, I decided to do something about it. I started by visiting every single park in Richmond––56 in total. I was floored to learn that 22% of Richmond is park land––so many parks and so little used!
Of all of the 56 parks I visited, the ones that moved me most were eight, little, pocket parks called “playlots.” Two playlots caught my eye: “Solano Playlot” in Richmond’s North and East neighborhood, and “Elm Playlot” in the Iron Triangle.
Over the next few months, I did nothing else but eat, sleep, and research parks and playgrounds. What I discovered immediately was the growing body of research pointing to the critical and essential role of play in child development. Play is how children learn. Play is the “mother’s breast milk” of activities––the most potent way for children to develop the cognitive, linguistic, social, imaginative, and physical skills they must acquire to reach their potential.
Everywhere I turned, there was a growing chorus from pediatricians, child development experts, and early childhood educators about the urgent need for better, more imaginative and stimulating, play spaces for our young children. I decided to do everything I could to transform existing, city parks into high quality playspaces. To do so, I borrowed from the best and brightest ideas from around the world to create a new model for a park that more effectively meet the needs of young children.
I started a community-based organization called Pogo Park, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
MORE ABOUT TOODY MAHER, FOUNDER AND DIRECTOR OF POGO PARK:
Toody is an artist, inventor, and entrepreneur. She graduated from U.C. Berkeley in 1983 and, along with her brother, secured the distribution rights to Swatch Watch in the 11 Western States. In 1983, she helped to pioneer Swatch’s product launch, set up the regional office, and helped drive sales in her region from $0 in 1993 to $30 million in 1996. Afterward, she founded another startup company which created the world’s first clear telephone with lights (named Fortune Magazine’s “Product of the Year” in 1990). Also in 1990, Toody was named Inc. Magazine’s 1990 “Entrepreneur of the Year.”
Later, Toody became Business Director at Juma Ventures, a San Francisco nonprofit the provided jobs and job training for “at-risk” youth. At Juma, Toody created a series of “social enterprise” businesses that included a Ben & Jerry’s/Tully’s coffee concession at the Giants and ‘49ers ballparks that employed 200 youth annually.
Next, she invented, developed, and patented different products and either sold or licensed them to other companies. She worked as a consultant for a research institute at UCLA, helping to translate their scientific, evidence-based research into formats that people can actually use. It was during this project, when she was working on how to increase overall health and well-being of communities, that she began to clearly see how well-designed and well-conceived playgrounds could intervene into the lives of children, families, and their communities.
Toody’s specialty is to take an idea and manifest it. She can make things happen and get things done. She has 25 years of experience in building and growing businesses from scratch. She is good at systems: designing and creating an infrastructure to ensure that all the parts work together.
She has built a network of incredible, talented, able, knowledgeable people in virtually every realm: engineers, graphic designers, architects, artists, writers, animators, photographers, poets, lawyers, accountants, illustrators, industrial designers, public relations specialists, insurance agents, web designers, researchers, journalists, film and television producers, directors, private investigators, doctors, teachers, electricians, plumbers, painters, architects, jewelry designers, cartoonists, draftsmen, general contractors and arborists.
More than anything, this project to revitalize Elm Playlot has absolutely captivated Toody. This project would allow her to use her skills to benefit the community in which she lives, and could prove to be the most creative, challenging, and fulfilling project of her life.
Toody with her niece and nephew
Toody Maher
Founder / Director
(510) 215-5500 office
