A young Dunedin boy wasn't playing around when he made it his mission to make his local park more accessible for his friend who uses a wheelchair.
Joshua Rudd is a Kea Scout and his friend Scarlette signed up too.
But Joshua noticed the park near the Scout building was not really accessible to his friend.
His mum Phillipa took up the story from here in an interview with Checkpoint: "My best friend and neighbour has three kids, and her youngest is in a wheelchair, and my kids and her kids are best of buddies.
"Josh looked out at the playground and said, Scarlette can't play.
"He sees her every day. He sees the struggles she goes through just to do her stuff like everybody else and that's all she wants to do."
For one of Josh's badges in Kea Scouts, he had to build a model of something that he could improve in the community, his mum said.
"He decided that he wanted to redesign a wheelchair swing because he didn't like the ones that are out there."
After making the model, Josh wrote to the local council to see what could be done using his example.
"He told me what he wanted to write and I wrote it out for him so that he could copy it because being 8, he wasn't very good at spelling and we did need it to be understandable."
Joshua's letter said, "My friend is in a wheelchair. She starts Keas next year. I made this swing for her to feel more included".
"It would be perfect on Hudson Park behind the Scout hall."
After his letter was sent, Joshua and his mum did not have to wait long for a response.
"We got an email from the council, the parks and recreation group manager came back to us, and wrote a massive email saying that he loved what Josh did and his inclusiveness and everything, but unfortunately couldn't put a swing onto Hudson Park.
"But they said 'Oh, we could do this, if Josh is okay with it, we could put an inclusive roundabout'.
"And so they just kept asking him, was he okay with it, is this okay, is this what you envisaged?"
Joshua "jumped up and down with a big grin on his face" when he found out the project would go ahead, Phillipa said.
"While a swing would have been fun for Scarlette, we ordered a new accessible roundabout from overseas and installed it, together with a new wheelchair-accessible pathway, recently," the Dunedin City Council wrote on its Facebook page.
"Both are over the moon with the results. Josh has even agreed to help us come up with ideas for our other playgrounds too ... We couldn't be prouder of Josh's efforts."
Josh said most importantly, the roundabout had proven a big hit for his friend.
"Scarlette says it's fun."
RNZ
