Hi, I'm Pam Gunther, Founder and CEO of Fit and Fun Playscapes. I started this journey many, many years ago. Before Fit and Fun, I was (and still am) a licensed architect in the real estate consulting world, "graduating" that chapter of my life as the VP of Engineering at a firm in NYC before starting a family. When my oldest entered school (he's 25 now, and his brothers are 23, and 17), I volunteered for the PTA and was asked to join the playground committee. We researched different companies at the time and were disappointed by the lack of creative games we envisioned, unresponsive guidance, and confusing instructions. Frustrated, we decided to paint the recess games by freehand which took days. However, when the kids came out to play, and I remember it vividly, it was sparks of pure joy for me. Immediately, I started to think about how to help other PTAs and schools to create colorful, engaging games—like the ones we painted by hand—but using stencils to turn paint days into paint hours.

After much thinking, observing, sketching, and researching I began to create the foundation for the next journey of my life, alongside my children. Many of our designs were inspired by things my children enjoyed - nature walks, space themes, letters, and numbers, science, geography, etc. I have many drawings and photos of my kids "helping mom make school fun!" During this time, my eldest son was diagnosed with ADD and I could see him struggle to play kickball and basketball. He was a runner and artist, chalking out "chalk cities" with a few other students. Recess was more of a creative need for him than a physical one, as we kept our boys very physically active outside of school. I wanted to help him feel included during recess and explored how I and the school could support him without medication to ensure he could enjoy recess too. A few years later, my youngest son was also diagnosed with a different form of ADD. This all lead me on a path to slowly build Fit and Fun Playscapes, starting out from the kitchen table and expanding to over 6,000 SF today where me and my team create and produce amazing, playground stencils, sensory path decals, portable activity mats, and mental health graphics for people of all ages and abilities.

Celebrating 15 years this year, Fit and Fun's core mission is to empower children and adults to experience the joy of movement for a lifetime of health. We create and operate in our colorful office and manufacturing space in Poughkeepsie where we also welcome our community to tour. Our products are in over 8000 schools and community spaces across the USA, Canada, Australia and parts of Europe, and we estimate we've helped over a million kids engage in fun, inclusive activities.
We are a proud, award-winning, 100% women-owned business featured in many publications. We provide helpful content through over 150 blogs, support several community nonprofits and strategic partners, and are always looking for ways to expand and improve our products and services.

Thank you for allowing me to share my story and I hope you understand that Fit and Fun Playscapes is more than just a company to me and my team. Connect with us on social media and share your story about why you visited our website and how we can help you. We'd love to learn about our shared visions to bring colorful, inclusive movement-based activities that everyone can enjoy.