The Fun Field is several hundred balls, a pile of pool noodles, a giant beach ball and no rules to speak of. Children arrive, something starts, and it does not stop for four hours. It is one of the loudest corners of Community Park and it is completely free.
Who runs it
A Primally Playful Foundation, a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit based right here in Davis. Their argument is a serious one dressed up as a very silly afternoon: youth happiness has been falling since 2012, happiness is a set of skills, and skills can be taught. They train teachers, they run workshops for companies, and they put every penny of profit from that work into classrooms that could not otherwise afford it. More than 20,000 children reached since 2018.
So the Fun Field is not a sideshow for them. It is the thing they actually do, done in public, for free, on Halloween.
Jared Hippler
The founder, and by his own job title the Chief Fun Officer, is Jared Hippler. He is a digital-health and addiction therapist, a keynote speaker on play and screen-time, a certified MovNat trainer, a martial artist and a two-time Peace Corps volunteer. If you see a grown man being tackled by eleven children at once, that is probably him and he is probably winning.
Ask him what happened in 2012. He will tell you about the year smartphones passed half the population and time with friends, sleep, exercise and self-esteem all started going the wrong way. Then he will hand you a pool noodle, which is more or less the whole point.
If you like what they do
They take donations, they sponsor teachers, and they will come and do this for your school or your workplace. Start at their website, or find them on Instagram.
