Pella’s Wonder Spelen Park has received the 2025 Kiwanis International Signature Project Award. Just ten projects around the world receive this distinction.

Kiwanis District Governor for Iowa and Nebraska John Boltz came to Wednesday’s Pella Kiwanis meeting to present the award.

“We’re really proud to have a winning project in our district,” says Boltz. “Wonder Spelen shows what can be accomplished by a group of people who want to help children.”

Wonder Spelen, which opened in 2021, started with a vision of a playground where children of all ages and abilities could have fun. Most of the equipment accommodates walkers and wheelchairs, and a large fence keeps kids safe inside the play area.

“It’s been really cool to see how Wonder Spelen has grown in reputation where other communities reach out because they want something like it in their neighborhood,” says Mark Wiskus, a Pella Kiwanis member who helped spearhead the project.

In 2018, the Pella Kiwanis Club started discussing an update to an aging Kiwanis Park, but could not have imagined what the park would have turned into.

“Money kept coming in,” says Wiskus. “And each donation allowed us to do more and more. We just added a few more pieces this summer because we still have people who want to support Wonder Spelen.”

Wonder Spelen Park, a partnership with the City of Pella, cost more than $2 million and received large donations from PPI, Pella Corporation and the Vermeer Charitable Foundation.