Always on
This project successfully funded on 27th August 2026, you can still support them with a donation.
Project PLAY: Help us build something amazing!
Northampton, West Northamptonshire, United Kingdom
Aim
Help us transform an old, neglected icecream van garage into an exciting inclusive stay & play, party and community venue for local families
Welcome to Project PLAY 💚
Hi! We’re Shannon and Bill, the family behind PLAY — along with our two smallest (and least qualified) members of the renovation team, Elsie, 2, and Leo, 9 months. 😂
PLAY started with a simple idea: create amazing experiences for children while building a genuine community for the grown-ups who come with them too.
Since then, we’ve welcomed hundreds of local families through our stay & plays, sensory and SEND-friendly sessions, character events and community days.
We’ve watched children make friends, parents meet other parents and familiar little faces return event after event.
Somewhere along the way, PLAY became much more than a few events, It became a community.And we decided that community deserved a home.
So we found one… kind of. 😂
We took on an old former ice cream van garage and workshop complex with one slightly ridiculous goal:
Turn THIS into PLAY.
A permanent stay & play and party venue. A home for our sensory and SEND-friendly sessions. Somewhere for incredible events, private parties and community activities — and eventually our own stay & play café.
There was just one minor issue…
The building had other ideas. 😂
Once we started stripping everything back, we discovered leaking roofs, rotten and damaged roof timbers, ageing plumbing and drainage, water ingress, deteriorated floors, old electrics and a seemingly endless supply of “while we’re here, we’d better fix that too” jobs.
We knew renovating an old building wouldn’t be easy.
We perhaps didn’t realise quite how stubborn a 70+ year old building could be.
Built by our little family ❤️
The overwhelming majority of Project PLAY is being renovated by Bill, working days, evenings and weekends to keep pushing the project forward while we continue running our businesses and events alongside it.
And it really has become a whole-family project.
Our two children, Elsie and Leo, have grown up around PLAY. They’re regularly popping into the venue to inspect Dad’s progress, “help” with the odd job and generally make completing anything take approximately twice as long. 😂
Elsie is already fascinated by what we’re building and desperate to get involved. Leo might only be nine months old, but he’s doing an excellent job of supervising from his pushchair.
They’re a huge part of why we’re doing this.
We’re building somewhere we’d be proud to bring our own children — somewhere they can grow, play and make memories alongside all the other little people we’ve been lucky enough to meet through PLAY.
There’s something pretty special about imagining them one day running through a finished venue that they watched us build from the ground up.
So why Crowdfund?
We’ve already invested heavily into Project PLAY and we’ll continue doing so.
The doors are opening. PLAY is happening.
But the amount of unexpected work we’ve uncovered means the renovation is costing considerably more than we originally planned.
So rather than Bill attempting to personally fight every roof beam, pipe, floor and wall in Northamptonshire, we thought we’d invite our community to get involved. 😂
Any money raised will go directly back into getting PLAY open — from essential repairs, materials, accessibility improvements and finishing the venue to bringing in additional skilled hands when they’re needed.
Every bit of support potentially means another job crossed off the list and another step closer to opening those doors.
And because we’re documenting Project PLAY, you’ll actually get to watch the transformation happen.
Be part of Project PLAY 💚
This isn’t us asking anyone to rescue our project.
We’re already building it.
We’re simply inviting you to become part of the story.
If you’ve brought your children to one of our events, followed our slightly chaotic renovation videos, supported PLAY from the beginning or simply believe Northamptonshire could benefit from somewhere like this, we’d love to have you involved.
We’ve created Crowdfunder rewards too, because we want the people who help us build PLAY to get something back from it.
And hopefully, when the dust finally settles, the tools disappear and these doors open, you’ll be able to bring your own family here and think:
“I helped make this happen.” ❤️
And if you can’t donate? Please don’t scroll away!
You can help us without spending a single penny.
Share this page. Follow Project PLAY. Tag another local parent. Share one of our renovation videos. Tell somebody about us. Or come along to one of our events.
Every share puts us in front of another family.
Every booking supports the project.
Every follow grows this little community.
And every contribution gets us another step closer.
Whether you’ve donated £5, chosen a reward, shared this page or simply followed our journey from the beginning, you’re part of Project PLAY.
One day very soon, we hope we’ll be standing inside a finished venue, watching Elsie and Leo playing alongside all the other children whose families have supported us along the way.
And when that happens, we’ll know this place wasn’t just built by us.
It was built by a community. 💚
We’re already building it.
We’re already covered in dust.
The kids are already trying to take over.
And we’re definitely too far in to turn back now. 😂🔨
Let’s get those doors open.
Welcome to Project PLAY. 💚
Funding method
Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made