The Tacoma Parks Foundation (TPF), formerly Greater Metro Parks Foundation, has supported the critical work of Parks Tacoma, formerly Metro Parks Tacoma (MPT), for more than 35 years. The Foundation is proud to continue this legacy by raising critical funds to bridge the gap between the resources available and the needs of our community.
priorities
our funding
Innovation fund
Parks Tacoma places and programs have always been a part of Tacoma’s heartbeat. They hold our games, our walks, our neighborhood cookouts. They’re where kids grow up and where we go to breathe when the world feels heavy.
Supporting TPF’s Innovation Fund rallies behind something simple but powerful: flexibility. A gift to our Innovation Fund allows us room to act fast, supporting the work that keeps our parks, programs, and centers vibrant, safe, and welcoming for everyone.
greatest need
Parks tacoma camps
For thousands of Tacoma kids, a Parks Tacoma summer camp is much more than a fun way to spend the day. It's a safe place to belong, grow, and thrive when school is out. It's the difference between a summer of possibility and a summer of uncertainty.
In 2026, 697 families enrolled in full-day Parks Tacoma summer camps, giving 2,658 kids a full summer of adventure, friendship, and growth. The programs meet kids exactly where they are at every age, ability, and stage of life.
1 in 5 families needed financial assistance or fee-waivers to participate in Parks Tacoma Camps. You can make a difference in the life of a child this summer.
youth
Senior programs
The need for connection, purpose, and belonging is truly important as we age. Across Tacoma, older adults are finding new friendships, staying active, and building community through programs designed to help them thrive. From a hot daily meal (13,238 in 2025), social gatherings (monthly dances, potlucks, and weekly coffee socials), recreational opportunities (art and cooking classes, guided walks, and day and overnight trips), to valuable resources (free technology clinics and annual resource fair), seniors are finding places to belong. Parks Tacoma Community Centers provide a welcoming place to connect to programs and create meaningful experiences that enrich daily life and support healthy aging. These programs are helping seniors remain engaged, independent, and connected to the people and places that make Tacoma home.
Supporting seniors: connection, community, & joy
adaptive and specialized recreation
These programs benefit children, youth, adults, and seniors with physical and/or cognitive disabilities who live in Tacoma and the surrounding Pierce County region. Participants span early childhood through older adulthood, including school-age children (6–17), transition-age young adults (18–22), young adults (23–35), adults, seniors, and families.
Adaptive recreation programs serve individuals with physical disabilities affecting mobility and/or major life functions. Specialized recreation programs serve individuals with intellectual, developmental, and sensory processing disabilities.
Parks Tacoma’s year-round Adaptive & Specialized Recreation programs ensure children, youth, and adults with physical and cognitive disabilities have meaningful opportunities to be active, build skills, develop friendships, and remain connected members of our community.
Programming includes adaptive and specialized winter, spring, and summer break camps for school-aged youth, adult day and afternoon groups, the Independent Chef cooking series, evening socials, the annual disability resource fair, fitness programs, sports leagues, and social programs. For participants, these programs offer a chance to engage close to home, build daily living skills, and be active socially, mirroring opportunities the broader community already enjoys at Parks Tacoma Community centers citywide.
summer meals
Today, that need, and the program’s impact continues to grow. In 2026, the Summer Playground Program expanded to 14 neighborhood parks across Tacoma, and by the third week of August had already served 17,000 meals. That follows a record 18,155 meals served in 2025, when Parks Tacoma provided approximately 18% of all summer meals served throughout Pierce County.
Donor support helps ensure this century-old program can continue meeting the needs of today’s kids — providing welcoming places to play, healthy meals to eat, and meaningful summer experiences for every child who participates.
Where Summer Fun Meets Community Impact
For more than 100 years, Parks Tacoma’s Summer Playground Program has given local kids a place to play, connect, and thrive during the summer - completely free of charge. What began in the 1920s as neighborhood recreation has grown into a vital summer resource for Tacoma families, combining free, engaging activities with nutritious daily meals for children in communities where access is needed most.
Capital Projects
Peck Community Sports Park is transforming Central Tacoma into a destination where every family belongs.
Imagine a place where your kids can shoot hoops under the lights, kick a soccer ball on a championship-quality synthetic turf field, climb a bouldering wall, race through a pump track, and then grab a basketball or soccer gear from the equipment checkout building - no cost, no barriers, just play.
peck community sports park
That's exactly what Peck Community Sports Park is becoming. Phase 2 is already underway, and with your support, Phase 3 will bring the full vision to life: lighted multi-purpose sports fields, playgrounds for every age from toddlers to teens, lighted sport courts for basketball, pickleball, and futsal, a bicycle pump track, native gardens, a traffic garden for young riders, and a sprawling green lawn adjacent to the picnic shelter for watching pickup games while spending lazy afternoons in the sun.
Spread a blanket on the grass, grab a shady seat under the picnic shelter, and watch the whole community come alive around you. And at the heart of it all is a free sports equipment checkout building. Because every child deserves a chance to discover a sport they love, regardless of what's in the family budget.
This park isn't just infrastructure. It's an investment in equity, health, and community pride for the neighborhoods of Central Tacoma. Be part of building it.
MEMORIAl bench PROGRAM
Our parks, gardens, and open spaces are part of what makes living in Tacoma so special. The Memorial Program is a wonderful philanthropic way to honor a loved one.
Participation in the Memorial Program begins at $6,000. Honor a loved one by sponsoring a park bench with a personalized commemorative plaque.
Memorial Program gifts are tax deductible. If you are interested in learning more or to set up an appointment, please contact Claire Williams at claire@tacomaparksfoundation.org.
Leave your legacy
Beyond the Bell activities are offered at elementary schools grades K-5.Tacoma Public Schools and community partners have come together to offer fun, meaningful after school activities to elementary school students. Activities take place at Tacoma's elementary schools from when school gets out until 5:45 pm, Monday-Friday.
Born from community concern and care, Summer Late Nights is a summer evening program that offers safe, welcoming spaces for Tacoma’s middle and high school students. Launched in 2023, this free drop-in initiative gives youth a place to connect, eat dinner, and enjoy games, art, music, and leadership activities. Programs take place weeknights from June through August across multiple neighborhood sites, thanks to a coalition of partners including Parks Tacoma, Tacoma Public Schools, Greentrike, the YMCA, and the Boys & Girls Clubs.
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Whole Child whole community
Summer late nights
Beyond the bell
Club b
Club B activities are offered at middle schools grades 6-8. Tacoma Public Schools and community partners have come together to offer fun, meaningful after school activities to middle school students. Activities take place at Tacoma's middle schools from 2:45-5 pm, Monday-Thursday.
IMPORTANT UPDATE AS OF 8/27/2026
Whole Child Community partners remain deeply committed to serving Tacoma’s children and families. Tacoma Public Schools has committed to continuing the Beyond the Bell and Club B programs in the 2026-2027 school year. To contribute to these incredible programs, please donate to the Tacoma Education Dream Fund.
Summer Teen Late Nights continues to serve youth in Tacoma. The Boys and Girls Clubs of South Puget Sound is leading the efforts to secure philanthropic funds to support programming. Please consider a donation to the Boys and Girls Clubs.
Strategic priorities
building a brighter future
Parks and recreational programs accessible to all, enhance our quality of life in many ways, providing health, social, physical, and environmental benefits to all who live, work or play in Tacoma.
