At 13 years old, Jack Preader has become a mover and shaker in Hollister.
Born with cerebral palsy, Jack may be limited in how he can travel on his electric wheelchair, but he questions any obstacles that come his way. Preader’s questioning has led to the renovation of Frank Klauer Memorial Park on Beverly Drive, which made the park fully compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
In December 2018, Jack realized he could not drink from the water fountain at Klauer Park and asked his mom, Melissa Preader, “‘Who’s park is this? Who does this belong to?” she said. “I told him that we live here, so it’s our park. We pay taxes, and it’s run by the city.”
Jack emailed former Hollister management services director Mike Chambless and asked for his help to make the Klauer Park’s water fountain ADA compliant.
“Within three to four months, we had a new water fountain,” Melissa said.
Jack raised another question to Melissa in October 2019 about Klauer Park.
In October 2019, he questioned why the park’s rubber bark prevented his wheelchair from giving him access to the equipment. He found it unfair that his younger sister Claire, now 10, could play inside the park, but he couldn’t.
Jack felt “this whole park should be accessible,’’ Melissa said. “And I said, ‘I agree. Do you want to email Mike?’ And so he wrote another email,” she said.
Melissa said Jack wrote in his email that it was unfair he lived around the corner from the park, yet he couldn’t use it fully.
“He said ‘I have to watch my sister and the only thing I can do is drive around on the grass, and after I ride around on the grass I get bored and it’s not fair. This park should be accessible to all kids,’” she said. “Mike wrote back and said ‘I totally agree with you.’”
Chambless asked Jack to help him redesign the park and shared different types of playground equipment and features that would make the park ADA compliant. One feature Jack chose was a wheelchair-mounting merry-go-round.
In November 2020, Chambless asked for approval from the Hollister City Council to make Klauer Park ADA compliant. Council members voted unanimously in favor of the changes.
Chambless told BenitoLink in December 2020 that though Klauer Park was “technically ‘accessible,’ according to 1999 rules, it does not meet the current design standards for an ‘accessible’ playground. There have been some leaps and bounds in accessible play in the last 20 years.”
The park reopened two weeks ago—just over one year after receiving approval from the council.
Hollister’s interim Community Services Director Henry Gonzales said that because of COVID, the project took longer to complete than anticipated.
He said some equipment took over a year to be delivered, where it normally would have taken five months. He also said scheduling contractors for the project became difficult because the city was certain when equipment would be shipped.
“We were just stuck in limbo because we couldn’t do anything without the equipment,” he said. “I’m hoping everybody understands how much work was put into it.”
Jack has made a number of visits to Klauer Park since it reopened and is finding joy in its accessibility. He’s also enjoying playing with his sister at the park.
“I always felt bad because I really always wanted to go to the park, but I knew that Jack didn’t want to,” Claire said. “It’s hard because we can only do so many things together. But it was really fun [at the park] because Jack was driving around and going on the structure with me for the first time.”
Frank Klauer Memorial Park will have its grand reopening and ribbon-cutting ceremony on March 5 at 10 a.m.
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