Volunteers assemble school playground
Karen Peterson
Karen Peterson
Brooke Roberts helps build storage containers with a companion on her back.
Karen Peterson
Volunteers paint a map of the United States under the pavillion to help create a play space for Mission Elementary School students.
Karen Peterson
Karen Peterson
Karen Peterson
Karen Peterson
Karen Peterson
Karen Peterson
Karen Peterson
Karen Peterson
Karen Peterson
Karen Peterson
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It was one of the largest volunteer projects the town had ever seen. Within six hours, more than 100 volunteers built a playground for the Mission Elementary School students on Saturday.
“This will give us more stuff to play on,” said Madisyn Evelo, 10.
The play equipment is similar to what was constructed in March 2015 on the other side of the schoolyard where the younger students have recess and climb up different contraptions, slide down several slides, and swing on bars on a double-decker high-rise unit — but not too high. Many people felt that something needed to be built for the older children, so they went to work on fundraising.
Cornerstone Faith Center helped bring in donations for the past year and KaBOOM stepped in to help. KaBOOM is a non-profit group that has worked to put in nearly 16,300 playgrounds across the country to promote and support play.
“Play is important to the development of children,” said Kristin Karcsh, KaBOOM project manager. “Some of the lessons learned on the playground can’t be taught in the classroom. This is more than play; it’s mind expanding, muscle building, and a friend maker.”
KaBOOM helped organize the project with their many years of experience and they brought in a funding source through Blue Cross and Blue provided the majority of the cost.
The health insurance company does service projects including looking for communities needing help with playground construction. The last two playgrounds they’ve worked on were with public parks. This is the first school they’ve helped.
“This is part of how we give to communities, and we really like this project because we get to participate,” said Jesse Zentz, volunteer with Blue Cross and Blue Shield, while helping with the layer of chips being spread out under the equipment.
Blue Cross and Blue Shield put one stipulation on the project.“It’s an important thing for us to see kids using it,” he said of the playground. Many kids said that using the equipment wasn’t going to be a problem.
A few months ago the elementary students gathered together and drew pictures illustrating what they wanted the playground to look like.
“This is kid inspired and volunteer built,” Karcsh said.
Those designs were used to develop the playground, and on Thursday, volunteers began preparing the site on the north side of the schoolyard. Three-foot holes were dug for the playground anchors.
On Saturday, the big construction project began, and more than 100 volunteers gathered to put together the components. Many of the adult volunteers brought their children to the event, but for safety reasons, the children were taken to another field to play games.
One-year-old Sawyer was allowed to stay as she was with her mom, Brooke Roberts, secured safely in a baby backpack. Sawyer watched as her mom drilled holes into wood to help with the construction of playground storage containers.
“This is a great community project,” she said adding that she brought her family to the event. “We like to do things as a family and this shows the kids what community support is about.”
Several teams of volunteers worked on the project. One group mixed cement, another group hauled wood chips in, a few teams put the playground pieces together.
Other volunteers worked to paint a map of the United States under the pavilion and swirly lines around the basketball hoop on the yard used mostly by younger students. The basketball hoops were painted and new lines added on the side for older students.
“With today’s technology, it’s important that students get out and play,” Karcsh said of the need for the upgraded play space.
The playground was finished within the allotted six hours. School is out for the summer break, but many kids have plans to spend time during their vacation trying out the playground.
