Courtesy Magic Meadows
By Carol Ann Conover
Cassie Pinn opened an indoor children’s play facility in Clifton Park not to follow a business trend, but to fill a need she had seen for years while raising seven children and running a home day care.
Magic Meadows, a 3,000-square-foot imaginative play facility, opened in late January or early February in a former dance studio next to Ravenswood Restaurant. Pinn is the only staff member on the floor, and the vision is unmistakably her own.
“It was hard to find a place that wasn’t overwhelming, that wasn’t overstimulating, where kids could just go and actually play — not just run around, but interact with each other, have that imaginative play,” Pinn said.
The facility centers on a miniature interactive town. Children can ride pedal cars along a road to a diner, grocery store, veterinary clinic, schoolhouse, camping area, construction zone and working boat where they can pretend to fish. A mail truck and mailboxes at each “house” let children play letter carrier. A fenced toddler area serves children under 2, while a second room — the “jungle room” — has a foam pit, obstacle course and open space for children who need to move.
