Navigation Play celebrates 5 years

WILLIAMSBURG — Navigation Play has planned a birthday party to celebrate its fifth year of operation and its new nonprofit status.

The organization, which encourages children to learn and create by playing, recently received its 501(c)(3) status, said founder and executive director Molly Bishop.

Navigation Play invites the community to celebrate its birthday during the Williamsburg Area Chamber of Commerce’s Third Friday event July 18, from 4-7 p.m.

Navigation Play will have treats and a large cardboard cake that children can help decorate. Residents can bring handmade cards or donate gifts from the Navigation Play wishlist.

Or just bring duct tape. “We go through a lot of duct tape,” Bishop said.

In just five years, Navigation Play has grown from a few small playgroups to providing more than 85 hours of free programming to the community in 2024, said Bishop.

The seed for Navigation Play was planted years ago. Bishop had worked at Girl Scout Camp Tahigwa near Dorchester, and it was closing. Bishop was among the people trying to keep it open.

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“We were doing research about the outdoors” said Bishop. “I started seeing this term, free play.”

Bishop didn’t realize that children were playing differently than they used to. “I was very young at the time,” Bishop said. She didn’t have children then.

Bishop spent 10 years as a board certified music therapist. She owned her own business in Worthington, Minnesota, and before that, had worked in Ames and Des Moines. She grew up in Waterloo.

Bishop and her husband Brian, a veterinarian, moved to the Williamsburg area in 2019. They have three children — Wesley, 9; Zachary, 7 and Ellison, 5.

Bishop decided she didn’t want to restart her music therapy business when she moved to Iowa County. She wanted to turn play into a business.

“I’ve always been a very playful person,” said Bishop. “I came from a playful family.”

Bishop couldn’t find much information about play as a business, she said, until she came across Playwork in the United Kingdom.

The field of study stems from the idea the play is a right for all children, said Bishop. Adults oversee children at play but don’t insert their own agendas into the activity.

Children control the play, finding success or failure without too much intervention, Bishop said.

Bishop took a course through Pop-Up Adventure Play while starting Navigation Play in 2020.

Because of COVID restrictions, Navigation Play activities were outside in 2020, said Bishop. The first activities were Music in the Park, an interactive music session based on Bishop’s music therapy knowledge. Everyone could spread out as recommended by officials during the pandemic.

Nature Explorers also met out doors. Bishop found outdoor areas she thought would interest children and let them explore those places.

Things have changed a lot in five years, said Bishop. She provides neither of those initial activities today.

Navigation Play offers Junior Explorers for children 0 to 5 years of age and their parents, said Bishop. The program meets year round for open-ended play, outdoors in the summer and indoors in the winter.

The program also acts as a parent support group, Bishop said. “I believe really strongly in supporting parents as well.”

Navigation Play offers Elementary Explorers for older children.

Pop-Up Play Days are “the bread and butter of the business,” said Bishop. She takes her trailer to the Williamsburg square and unloads the boxes, buckets, tubes, containers, pots and pans, fabrics and other items inside.

“And kids create. And they play,” said Bishop. Sometimes they make houses. Last week they used the pots and pans to gather rocks.

“One week we had a fashion show,” said Bishop. “But its all in their hands.”

More Pop-Up Play Days are scheduled for Aug. 5, 12 and 19 from 9:30 a.m. to noon.

“I am there to help, and I also have volunteers,” said Bishop. The adults might help the children cut or tape things or find items they ask for, but the children control their own play, Bishop said.

Navigation Play offers some day camps in the summer. They’re held on the property where former naturalist Marie Koschmeder operates Walking Stick Adventures and a tipi camp.

Navigation Play brings themed play to children with Bubble Day and Mud Day.

Navigation Play can be found at local events such as Third Fridays during the summer and at the Halloween trunk-or-treat and Night on the Square in December.

The only programs that require sign-up are play days, Kids at Play and the camps, said Bishop. People just show up at other events, she said. Navigation Play doesn’t charge admission, so donations are welcome.

Bishop has sponsors for the larger events this year, but she still has other events businesses and individuals may sponsor. “We’re trying to make sure we have a sponsor for all our pop-ups,” Bishop said.

A VIP club brings in some revenue while giving special benefits to the VIPs.

The organization relies on volunteers and welcomes them, Bishop said. It also welcomes donations of items that children can play with. Anyone who wants to donate an item should contact Bishop to see if she can use it.

Bishop hopes that having the 501(c)(3) designation will help Navigation Play grow, she said.

The Navigation Play board consists of Maria Koschmeder, Grant Taylor, Angie Kraushaar, Donna McWilliams and Bethany Weldon.