Anna & Abby's Yard Anna & Abby's Yard, an accessible nature playground in Forest Grove, opened in December 2020. The playground is named and designed in honor of two sisters, 11-year-old Abigail Robinson and 6-year-old Anna Dieter-Eckert. The park features several elements made from a giant sequoia tree that had to come down, repurposed into a dragon, free library, and other play pieces. (Samantha Swindler/Samantha Swindler/ The Oregonian)

The world of Anna & Abby’s Yard is designed to tell a story – one that includes fairies, a dragon and two young girls.

Six-year-old Anna Dieter-Eckerdt loved riding horses, eating vanilla ice cream and searching for fairies. Her sister, 11-year-old Abigail Robinson, loved theater, climbing trees and hanging out with her friends. They were killed in 2013 after a hit-and-run crash in front of their Forest Grove home.

Today, a storybook play space in their honor is located on the northern edge of Rogers Park, at 18th Avenue and Douglas Street in Forest Grove.

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Shaded by a grove of trees, the accessible nature playground is designed to encourage creative play. Several elements are made from an ailing, 200-year-old sequoia that was removed from a neighboring yard and donated to the project.

When children walk through the “infinity tree,” made from the base of the ancient sequoia, the idea is they become small and the world becomes large. Along the pathway they’ll find a series of fairy huts, climbing structures and a forest library, made from part of the sequoia stump, regularly stocked with children’s books.

The reclining dragon named Wilder is also carved from part of the tree. The story goes that the dragon was trapped inside the tree until it was freed and came to rest atop its lair at Rogers Park.

“Our family, we believe in the magic of the woods and that everything is alive and has this mystical, magical element to it,” said Susan Dieter-Robinson, Anna and Abby’s mom. “Before the girls went to heaven, we did a lot of writing notes to fairies, and we have a fairy door in our house. When we were planning the park, we really wanted to bring those ideas of the things that we loved and the girls loved and create a space that encompasses that.”

The creative minds of the neighborhood children also helped to shape the park. The sculpted dragon was originally designed to be a snake.

“When we were already in construction, a neighbor child left me a note in my mailbox letting me know that she and her friends had found a dragon’s lair underneath Rogers Park,” Dieter-Robinson said. “I sent that to our designers, and the designers came back and said, ‘I think the snake needs to be a dragon.’”

Artist Pete Helzer created two bronze sculptures of fairies in Anna and Abby’s likenesses for the playground. They sit atop a boulder, each holding a bowl that is often filled with love rocks – small rocks with fabric hearts pasted to them. Giant love rocks, made of boulders etched with hearts, are also placed around the park.

Much of the park is inspired by the girls’ lives and interests, from the mud kitchen where kids can pretend to prepare and serve food, to Anna & Abby’s magical mailbox, where children are encouraged to leave letters for people who don’t have an address.

“Originally, for me, it was about writing to heaven,” Dieter-Robinson said. “I have a key to that, and I don’t read the letters. I just put them in a box and I say a little prayer, because I feel like those notes are going get to where they need to go, whether it’s to their favorite fairy or Santa Claus or maybe a relative in heaven.”

The idea of the playground began with the memorial fund that was created after the crash in 2013.

“My husband and I just really felt strongly that we needed to give back to the community because we felt just so much support and love,” Dieter-Robinson said. “We talked to some people, and we decided that, ‘Hey, why don’t we build a park?’ And we had really no idea what that meant.”

It turned out to be a massive, seven-year undertaking that grew and evolved over time. The family held a series of fundraisers to raise about $191,000 for the project. They eventually teamed up with Harper’s Playground, a nonprofit that builds accessible playgrounds, to raise another $400,000.

“This park was built on lemonade stands and small fundraisers and all the time that kids would knock on my door with bags full of change and say, ‘This is for Anna & Abby’s Yard,’” Dieter-Robinson said. “I think the community really feels like they have a piece in it as well, because so many people came together to help make it happen.”

The city of Forest Grove contributed the remainder of the $1.8 million project, which included not just the nature playground but other improvements at Rogers Park.

Anna & Abby’s Yard opened in December 2020.

Rather than bark chips, a wheelchair-friendly rubber matting winds through Anna & Abby’s Yard. The playground features an integrated carousel flush with the ground and accessible swings.

At the center of the space is a boulder with a bronze, heart-shaped plaque featuring likenesses of Anna and Abby.

“Anna & Abby’s legacy is not this park,” it reads, “but what you feel when you are here – peace as you marvel at nature and joy when you see, hear, or create simple play.”

Dieter-Robinson often visits the park with her youngest daughter, now age 6.

“It’s overwhelming, because the joy I feel also sits right next to the sadness that I feel,” she said. “Focusing on one second, that really, really hurts, was not going to get me anywhere. This wouldn’t be here if I focused on that one second. But now people have this place to come to, and whether they knew Anna and Abby, my hope and prayer is that they come here and they just feel love and joy and get a sense of peace.”

-- Samantha Swindler, sswindler@oregonian.com, @editorswindler

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