Illinois: town donates playground for new use.

At a recent meeting of the Northbrook Park District Board, the members and staff watched a CD of delighted children playing on a wooden playground. The group recognized the structure. It had occupied the Village Green just a few years earlier before the park district decided to replace it. The children in the CD, however, were unknown to the board, as was the background of lush green hills. The children swinging, sliding and hanging from the former Northbrook Park District playground apparatus were from the city of Vanadzor in Armenia--a community of 75,000 people experiencing its first playground.

How does a recreational area headed for the trash heap in Northbrook, Ill., become a vital part of a European community? The answer is through the vision of one woman, and the generosity of many people who shared her commitment to make the world a better place.

Northbrook resident, Emily Dischinger, was new to town in 2002, when she heard that the playground in the village center was going to be replaced. Having just returned with her family from seven years of missionary work in the Ukraine, Dischinger saw the structure through different eyes than many of her neighbors.

"There is a great gulf between our (U.S.) abundance and the rest of the world's standard of living," she said.

So she approached her friends, who were a part of the Armenian Relief Project, and asked if they could find a use for the equipment, if she could convince the park board to donate it?

The relief group was all for it, but the park board was skeptical. The equipment would have to be dismantled in one day, stored, transported to a port, shipped overseas and then reassembled at no cost to the Park District. Legal paperwork would have to be prepared holding the Park District free from liability, while binding the group to a strict time line and responsibility for the condition of the sight. In the end, the board agreed, Dischinger found a ready supply of volunteers through her church, and the process began.

One volunteer brought his students from a Chicago technical high school to inventory every piece of the equipment and draw diagrams, so the structure could be reassembled. The owner of a local business offered the use of his company's heavy equipment and his workers to move the pieces into three semi-trucks. The United Armenia Fund, another relief group, donated the ship ping costs. One year later, another group of church volunteers made the trip to Armenia to reconstruct the playground in Vanadzor.

Yoder stands in awe of what the group accomplished and says that he'd recommend that the park district do it again, provided the next venture is spearheaded by someone with Dischinger's commitment.

"You need someone driven to see that it will work," he said. "I'm so glad we said 'yes.' It would have been so much easier to say 'no.'" There were more than a few tears shed as the board and staff watched the CD at a recent meeting.

"The thought that a playground that was considered to have seen better days ... had become the central play structure for these children was humbling," said board member Penny Randel. "Our old play set, which was just one of many in our community, became three playgrounds in areas [in Armenia] where none had existed," she added. "Recreation and playgrounds are so commonplace in our lives that it is easy to forget what a gift they really are."--written by Janet DeRaleau