Colleen Strong and her friend Joy Navarro enjoy bringing their toddlers to the Maple Maze inside Maple Grove's Community Center. 

"They love it here, they can play and be kids while we talk and catch up," Strong said. “My 16-month-old daughter, Alyona, loves meeting and playing with other kids here her age.” 

It's an area where kids and toddlers have been climbing up and sliding down for the last 14 years. Community Center Manager Lisa Jost said on average they see about 800 kids a week, 42,000 annually.

“With that much foot traffic, it’s time to update and renovate the Maze and give kids a new exciting and challenging experience,” Jost said. 

An update might be an understatement. The renovations to the Maple Maze will include 28 new features, three new slides plus a triple slide, a tree tunnel and a rock climbing wall. The renovations include expanding the toddler area to twice the size it is now, adding more floor activities and new toys to stimulate creativity for the little ones, Jost said.

“There will be more obstacles and it will be more challenging for the kids to work their way through. There will be five different levels with slides ending on different levels,” Jost said.

This is good news to the parents like Navarro said her two-year-old, Eliana, gets bored quickly. She said the renovations are long over due.  

"I hope they will add more challenging toys, obstacles and better kid-proof latches on the toddler doors," Strong said.

Jost did say better latches on the toddler doors have been a challenge, but a new and improved solution will likely be in place when the renovations are complete.

The Community Center, Jost said, is hoping to keep the kids more intrigued with going up and around instead of just coming down. The goal of the estimated $250,000 project is to increase attendance and bring in more revenue for the Community Center. 

“Our goal is to bring in an extra $10,000 a year to offset the operating budget to keep up with the expenses of the indoor playground and Community Center,” Jost said. She said a team has been planning the renovations for the last couple of years with the hope to accommodate more kids and keep them up inside the maze.

The Maple Maze renovations are slated to begin around Sept. 1, 2011 and be complete five to six weeks later.