As a little girl, Kristi Yamaguchi watched her big sister, Lori, try ice skating, so of course she had to try it, too. For young Kristi, who was born with club feet, it also proved to be great physical therapy. Though Lori gave the sport the cold shoulder after a couple of months, Kristi kept at it and went on to win gold in the 1992 Winter Olympics. Today, she’s the mom of two girls herself, and at work on a cool concept that will serve the needs of all children.
Chet Cooper: Tell us about your Always Dream foundation.
Kristi Yamaguchi: I founded it in 1996. I was inspired by the Make-A-Wish foundation to make a positive difference in children’s lives. We’ve been helping out various children’s organizations, which is rewarding. Our latest project is a playground designed so that kids of all abilities can play side by side. That’s our focus now.
CC: Are you working with a playground company, or are you doing this on your own?
KY: We’re doing this on our own, but we’ve also partnered with the city of Fremont, where we’re building the playground. Fremont is my hometown. They’ve given us the land within the Central Park area to build this playground, so they’ve been amazing to work with. We work with an architect who specializes in equipment designs for children with disabilities. So it’s a unique playground, and we’re excited about it.
CC: There are companies that manufacture accessible playgrounds, so you might want to look at what they’ve done and learn from their successful and not-so-successful experiences.
KY: Our architect has done a number of these playgrounds before, and she knows the different manufacturers, so we felt pretty confident that we could do this ourselves.
CC: That’s good. What about fundraising?
KY: We’re currently fundraising. It takes a while. This project is three or four years along from when we started. We hope to break ground soon. We had a dinner about a year-and-a-half ago in October to raise funds for the playground, and we’re planning another event, called Dancing the Night Away. Proceeds will go to fund the playground as well.
CC: Has anyone from your organization reached out to the Kirk Douglas Foundation?
KY: No, we haven’t. We’ve just been trying to raise funds on our own. Maybe we should look into that.
CC: He told me that his main focus is playgrounds. They put a lot of money into them and into parks in the greater LA area. I don’t know their geographic boundaries, and the Bay Area may be too far away, but I’d suggest you contact his office and let him know what you’re doing. They seem to be pretty sincere, and it might be a good fit.
KY: We’ll look into that, thank you.
CC: So, does the dancing event connect in any way with your stint on Dancing with the Stars?