A team effort over the summer has resulted in a new playground addition for Kidville, the before and after school child care program at Maple Lake Public Schools.
The project began in May when Joe and Diane Brinza of Maple Lake donated playground equipment to Kidville. Ruth Glenn, Kidville co-coordinator, said she had been wanting to add swings to the Kidville play area and the Brinza’s donation presented the means to do just that.
“The Kidville program has grown from 20 to 50 kids after school now,” Glenn said. “We do take advantage of the big playground on the other side of the school, but with parents coming every 15 minutes and in a hurry, it’s hard to always be over there. Plus other programs in the school like ECFE, preschool, kindergarten or kids looking for a place to play during the Irish football games have also enjoyed the playground. It’s nice for the smaller children.”
The project began with Ruth’s son, John Pearce of Pearce Construction, providing a volunteer effort to dismantle the Brinza’s play equipment. Ruth’s husband, Bob, was joined by friend, Brian Marx, and Kidville parent, Kole Hance, owner of Hance Utility Service in Buffalo. They loaded the playground equipment on a Hance flatbed truck and hauled it to the school.
The equipment was pressure-washed, sealed, and placed in position by Ruth’s son, Ben Pearce, Bob Glenn, and Kidville parent, Ed Trager, with Tyler Bruns digging out old boards to expand the sandbox.
On the crew to dig 14 footings were Bob Glenn and Kidville parents, Bill Kaley and Shawn Saylor. Glenn spent another evening mixing nine bags of cement for the footings and hauled lumber and tools with a van from his employer, Glass Source.
After many days of drilling holes, repairing and reattaching old parts, adding new parts and assembling new equipment, the play area was ready for sand, which was supplied by Kole Hance.
On the first day of the new school year, Kidville kids worked together in moving the huge piles of sand in and around the playground equipment.
And then they played.
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