Author: Tammy Lane • First Posted: Thursday, September 03, 2009

Gallery (click any photo to view the gallery)

Sophie's Playground is a memorial to a little girl who died in infancy.

For her family, the Sophie Routt Memorial Playground is a bittersweet accomplishment. They rallied the community to raise the money needed to build it for Breckinridge Elementary School, but their baby girl will never play there.

She was only a few weeks old when she died last fall after complications at birth.

“Sophie changed everything for us,” Mary Katherine Routt said at the playground dedication ceremony. “In two months, she made a huge impression on so many people.”

Now Sophie’s impact will be felt for years to come as children enjoy the new swings, slides and jungle gym recently installed behind the school.

Routt and her husband, Chad, welcomed their second daughter into the world a year ago in July. The baby, who suffered a brain injury, died in October.

“She fought really hard and kind of inspired us all,” said Routt, who was a reading intervention teacher at Breckinridge.

A close family friend, Krista Stockton, decided a few months later to help the Routts find a way to honor Sophie’s memory.

“You want to be there for your friends and do all you can to help them get through a tough situation,” she said.

Routt knew the school had been gathering donations for new playground equipment for several years but had only about $11,000 in hand. With Stockton on board, the fundraising efforts broadened as e-mails and phone calls crisscrossed the country. Raffle tickets, yard sales, a golf scramble and other events followed; the city government and a local accounting firm also pitched in. By this summer, the school had collected another $35,000 – enough to complete the project.

“This playground was built out of love for Sophie and each of you,” Stockton told the dozens of children gathered for the Aug. 30 dedication.

Routt called the project “the perfect distraction” for her grieving family, including 4-year-old daughter Ella, who eagerly awaited the new equipment.

“We’ve been out every day, looking at the progress. She wants to play on it so bad,” Routt said before the playground opened.

Though Routt is teaching at Squires Elementary this year, she said she’ll forever have a connection to Breckinridge. “My heart will always be here,” she said.

In Sophie's memory: A message to all the children who use the playground and a thank-you to those who made it possible

Video On Demand: Choose 'features' as the program category, and click on Breckinridge Playground Dedication in the list of titles.