Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story misstated the printing sponsors. Boulder Community Health and the Boulder Library Foundation sponsored the printing. The story has been corrected.
Working with about 700 Boulder elementary students and two University of Colorado Boulder environmental design seniors, Growing Up Boulder has created a new, child-friendly map of the city.
The map’s launch also marks the 10th anniversary of Growing Up Boulder, a CU program that partners with the city and the Boulder Valley School District. The program aims to get children involved in local government decision making and city planning.
“We really want everyone to take advantage of the resources here,” Growing Up Boulder program director Mara Mintzer said.
A printed version of the bilingual English and Spanish map, designed for children up to age 10, will be sent home with every child in the district’s Boulder elementary schools.
Print copies also will be available at public spaces around the city, while a digital version of the child-friendly map — with more locations and information — is expected to be available in September.
The Boulder Library Foundation and Boulder Community Health covered the cost of printing 10,000 maps so they would be free, while more than 30 community partners helped with the project.
Input for what to include on the map came from six city departments, from parents and from children attending Boulder Valley schools, area preschools and afterschool programs.
CU senior Abe Proffitt drew all the pictures representing Boulder places and created all the graphics, while CU senior Alex Haefling designed the map itself.
“There were so many iterations,” Proffitt said. “I tweaked a lot of my drawings to make them more readable and clear.”
Along with depicting kids’ favorite places, their schools and the city’s hospitals, police stations and fire stations, the map includes icons to show what kids can do in those spots, such as an icon of a dog where there’s a dog park, a flower where there’s a nature trail and a soccer field where there are sports fields.
“We are striving to make it exactly what the kids want,” Haefling said.
Growing Up Boulder education director Cathy Hill said the group took draft versions of the maps back to the students to get their feedback and make improvements. Students, for example, thought the original orange background color made it look like Boulder was covered in sand, so the color was changed to green.
“We wanted it to be made by and for kids,” Hill said.
Whittier teacher Alysia Hayas said the school’s teachers love working with Growing Up Boulder.
“It’s so powerful,” she said. “The kids see that their voices are heard. Kids feel that they matter, that they have some say, that people listen to them.
“They can see themselves on this map. It’s really cool.”
At Whittier, first-graders learned about how maps are used from two CU map librarians, and about map making from a CU expert. They also looked at typical city maps and came up with ways to make them more child friendly. Then they drew pictures of favorite places they wanted to see included.
First-grader Judith Jaquez Aguirre wanted to see Pearl Street Mall depicted on the map, adding the animal sculptures are her favorite feature.
“On a regular map, there are a lot of words, and some kids can’t read words,” she said. “This map has lots of pictures and less words.”
As he looked at the finished map, classmate Tevin Loku Umagiliyage pointed out places he’s visited, including Fiske Planetarium and the skate park at Scott Carpenter Park, better known as the rocket ship park.
“I want to go to Scott Carpenter Park to climb up (the rocket ship) and see all around Boulder,” he said.
Up next, Growing Up Boulder is working on a digital teen-friendly map of the city, with the work led by graduate students in CU’s Masters of the Environment program. That map is expected to be available in December.
