PLAINFIELD, Ill. – On International Day of Peace, a special playground dedication in Plainfield honored 6-year-old Wadea al-Fayoume who was brutally stabbed to death two years ago this October. The ceremony was the same day the Illinois General Assembly had designed as Wadea al-Fayoume Day.
What we know:
The Sensory playground, located in Van Horn Woods, is designed to stimulate a child’s senses while helping to develop their motor skills and improve their cognitive and emotional skills, all in a calming environment.
Mohamed Faheem, President of American Muslims Assisting Neighbors (AMAN), told the crowd that little Wadea was “on the spectrum” and enjoyed the playground prior to his death.
Three months after a statue of Wadea was dedicated in the same park, local lawmakers used the playground dedication to call on both state and national leaders to do more to end the fighting in Gaza in his name.
Illinois State Rep. Nabeela Syed told those in attendance: “We know and acknowledge people are not free from the repercussions of the things that happen down in Springfield or in Washington DC – that sometimes the victims could be six-year-old boys that deserve to grow up.”
The head of the NAACP in DuPage County, invoking the Reverend Jessie Jackson, reminded everyone how our world is diminished when children are taken from us too soon.
“Who knows if the cure for sickle cell anemia was not waiting in Wadea’s mind, who knows that the cure for cancer was not hidden in Wadea’s imagination, and who knows that diplomacy needed to stop the war in Gaza wasn’t forming in Wadea’s heart…we’ll never know,” said Michael Childress.
The new playground is located on the east side of Plainfield just off of Frontage Rd. near I-55.
