Project Playground.

Diagnosis: The parks and recreation department in a small town is faced with replacing deteriorating playground equipment in the city park and has no funding in the budget.

Prescription: A grassroots group of community residents design and build a modern wooden playground structure in an effort reminiscent of an old-fashioned barn raising. Using an army of enthusiastic community voLunteers as the Laborers--and a minimum of public funds and donations--the Project Playland playground was built five days at one-fourth the cost of purchasing a commercially built structure.

The Lasting Cure: In addition to the high-quality, long-lasting playground structure created by the volunteer, a more permanent sense of community spirit was instilled in everyone who participated in the project.

The advent of e-mail, faxes and cellular phones has made modern communication increasingly impersonal. The implicit cost of this new technology has been an insidious diminishment in the neighborhood sense of community. We have all heard grandma's stories of neighborly quilting bees or grandpa's tale of helping Farmer Brown re-build his barn with local volunteers. This article chronicles the story of Project Playland and provides a successful template for other parks and recreation departments to consider. This community-built playground structure created an empowering sense of accomplishment in the volunteers of all ages and backgrounds who worked together and now share this renewed sense of community pride.

During the summer of 1995, the City of Spearfish--a community of about 10,000 nestled in the Black Hills of western South Dakota--was examining the prospect of replacing the existing metal playground equipment at the city park. The current equipment was over 20 years old and was not only deteriorating, but was considered a safety hazard to children when measured against current national playground safety standards. Unfortunately, the parks and recreation department had little funding with which to begin such an endeavor.

Local resident Polly Young suggested that community volunteers could build a high-quality wooden playground structure similar to one that she and her husband, Todd, had seen while vacationing in Ohio. She offered to spearhead the effort as general coordinator.

The parks and recreation department was very supportive of the idea and scheduled a meeting with the city council. Since the playground was located on city property, the mayor and city council were required to grant permission for the project.

During the summer of 1995, a series of public forums was held, where the cost of the project was estimated and presented. The major expenditures broke down as follows:

Lumber and building supplies          $31,000
Slides and manufactured
  equipment                            10,000
Design fees                            13,000
On-site consulting fees                 7,000
Ground cover and landscaping           21,000
Tools and fasteners                    10,000
Contingencies                           8,000

Total estimated cost of project      $100,000

In addition to a cost estimate, the city council requested that the project coordinator provide a breakdown of funding sources. These funding sources were estimated as follows:

Donated materials and supplies        $20,000
Fundraising projects and cash
   donations                           55,000
Funding requested from the city        25,000

Total funding sources of project     $100,000

"At first, I think the city council thought that I was crazy and that it would never work," Young explained, "but after several city council meetings during the summer, including the architect's slides and video's of their other successful playground installations, and the notion of barn raising the structure with free volunteers, the city council agreed to contribute $25,000 and to provide office space and telephone and photocopying services which really helped."

With Young's enthusiastic attitude and the support of the city council, a team of volunteer committee members was recruited and specific subcommittees were organized by the particular needs of the project. The time table from the initial idea to the ultimate completion date was about 18 months and transpired as follows:

* June, 1995: Idea presented to parks and recreation department

* August, 1995: City Council meetings and public hearings

* December, 1995: Volunteer Committees organized and operating

* February, 1996: Design Day: 500 elementary children present creative ideas for playground equipment to project designer who encompassed these wishes into the actual blueprints.

* May-September, 1996: Fundraisers held, 600 volunteers signed up for shifts during construction blitz

* October 2-6, 1996: Five-day dawn-to-dusk construction blitz

* October 6, 1996: 7:00 pm Grand opening ribbon cutting ceremony

What Other Parks Can Learn

Although it was ultimately a success, Project Playland was not without its share of surprises and problems. The fly in the project's ointment occurred when a new mayor and city council were elected and the entire project had to be re-submitted and re-approved. During this period, a small group of residents opposed the project under a campaign to save two crab apple trees slated to be removed from the construction area. In a compromise resolution, five new trees were planted to replace the two that were removed, and the design plans were altered to utilize only the existing space of the old playground equipment. This plan was supported by the newly elected mayor and city council.

Other unexpected problems occurred when a co-general coordinator became seriously ill and withdrew from the project. Another committee member quit after a series of disagreements with other members.

There were a few lessons to be learned from the Project Playland experience. The three items we found most important were:

Lesson 1: Use an Experienced Professional Design Firm

In addition to the actual architectural plans, the $13,000 design fee included a detailed guidebook which provided the plans, instructions and checklists for the project as well as round-the-clock telephone consultations for the numerous problems that arose.

"The design firm had developed a proven system for handling fundraising and public relations, acquiring materials and motivating volunteers," noted Young. "Their experience proved invaluable because they had already seen most of the problems that can happen. Their advice and solutions really worked and they were always very positive and encouraging when problems did arise."

The city council voiced some concerns about the quality of the self-built structure, thinking that homemade meant poor quality and a lack of safety standards.

The playground architects we used guaranteed that their designed wooden playground structures would:

1. Meet all local building codes and covenants.

2. Meet all safety requirements as outlined by the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

3. Meet all the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The design firm was very flexible in changing the plans if fundraising goals were not achieved, noting, "In the end, we can build a structure that costs what you have raised."

Lesson 2: Delegate Duties Via Functional Volunteer Committees

Polly Young referred to the design firm's guidebook--which provided her with a master plan for all stages of the project, including the organization of the volunteer effort into functional committees--as the "Bible of Playground Construction." As the general coordinator, Young's first task following the city council's approval was to organize a volunteer committee board. Certain committees would be organized to plan and perform specific functions of the project. Each committee would be supervised by a board member with Young as the main coordinator of all the committees.

Project Playland functional committees and their respective roles in the completion of the project were as follows:

Volunteer Committee: The guidebook recommended that 800 volunteers needed to be signed up before the actual construction took place. It recommended using the 30:30:40 rule when estimating how many obliged volunteers will actually show up. This general rule states that 30% of the people will show up and actually work the entire four- to five-hour construction shift, 30% will show up and work part of a shift and 40% will not show up and work at all. So in signing up 800 volunteers in advance, you can expect that about 240 people will actually show up and work entire shifts, 240 people will show up and work part of a shift and 320 people will not show up at all.

From the volunteers that sign up in advance, 10 Construction Captains were recruited to supervise the untrained but enthusiastic volunteer construction workers. These captains were given red baseball caps to wear and were nicknamed the Red Hats by the volunteers, as in, "Hey we need a boom auger (a machine that digs telephone pole holes) over here, better go find a red hat."

One week before the actual construction, all signed up volunteers were contacted via telephone to confirm that they would still be working their shift on the day they had signed up for. Local businesses allowed the committees to use their telephones to contact the 600+ volunteers that signed up in advance.

Fundraising and Public Relations: The guidebook suggested several fundraising options which were evaluated by the volunteer committee. The most successful fundraising ideas were as follows:

* Playground Equipment Sponsors: The committee sold sponsorships ranging from $150 for a wooden bench and up to $2,500 for the Fish Hatchery Village, the unique centerpiece of the playground structure. The sponors' names were engraved onto plaques and attached to their respective playground equipment. The local businesses were very supportive of this fundraiser and contributed more than $20,000.

* Picket Fence Sales: The local Kiwanis Club sponsored a buy-a-picket campaign that raised over $3,000. For a $15 donation, names were carved into one of the wooden pickets on the perimeter of the playground structure. The children loved seeing their names on these pickets.

* Direct Solicitation: More than $20,000 in outright cash donations and another $20,000 in donated construction materials was raised primarily through directly appealing to the public and specific businesses, especially those in the construction field.

* Food Donations: Local restaurants and shopping centers provided 300-500 meals per day for the volunteer construction workers. For the Sunday night completion party, all the local pizza shops, in the true spirit of cooperation, shared the task of feeding more than 600 people, including the 200 children who were anxious to play on the equipment for the first time.

These other fundraisers listed below raised about $1,000 each:

* Pennies for Playland: The school children collected pennies from the neighborhood and colleted them in a pickup truck which was parked in the center of town each weekend. By the end of the fundraiser, the entire pickup bed was filled with pennies.

* Bake Sale and Fish Fry: A community bake sale and fish fry was held during the summer, in which baby sitting services were offered for a donation.

* Tee Shirt Sales/Raffle: Project Playland Tee shirts were sold and a raffle to win a donated wooden playhouse was held.

The fundraising efforts of Project Playland were so successful that the project did not even use all of the $25,000 that the City of Spearfish allocated to the project.

Tool Committee: Volunteers were asked to lend the project certain tools that were needed for the actual construction. All borrowed tools were tagged and guaranteed to be returned in "as good or better shape." These tools were stored in a donated locking mobile trailer. The children were asked to bring one piece of 50- or 60weight sandpaper as their main task would be to sand smooth the more six tons of lumber to be used in the construction.

A partial list of the "borrowed tools" used in Project Playland are listed below.

Lesson 3: Involve the Children In All Phases

Since the community children would be the primary users of the playground, a Children's Committee was formed. One hundred elementary school children were randomly selected by the three schools in town and, with parental permission, coordinated the children's suggestions for the design of the actual playground structure. Some of the suggestions were unique to Spearfish, such as the Fish Hatchery Village structure that is modeled after the city's historic Booth Fish Hatchery.

In February of 1996, the project designer flew from New York and met with approximately 500 school children who enthusiastically presented their "wish list" of ideas for the playground. Most of these suggestions were incorporated into the final blueprints but some ideas such as a skate board ramp and a water slide were rejected for safety reasons.

Each of the elementary schools in town scheduled a class day to work on Project Playland as a class project. Jobs such as sanding the tons of wood and "soaping" the thousands of screws (so not to split the wood) were tasks that the youngsters performed with much enthusiasm.

"The kids really helped design and build the playground and loved this hands-on experience," Young remarked. "The children are very proud of their hard work and will take care of the structure. We feel that this will minimize vandalism to the structure in the long run."

In addition to the Children's Committee, a Child Care and Activities Committee was formed. Construction volunteers with children under the age of four were provided with child care services while they worked their construction shift. The older children were kept busy with construction tasks while the younger kids were offered an array of activities to keep them busy. All the children were tagged with donated hospital bracelets and signed in and out by their parents.

The highlight may have been the gathering of more than 100 children on the outdoor stage next to the playground to perform the Macarena dance as part of the Sunday Completion Party. After the dance the kids lined up and began the 10-9-8-7....countdown as Polly Young "cut the ribbon" to the newly completed wooden playground structure. A stampede of more than 200 excited children poured onto the playground wanting to be the first to use its array of bridges, mazes, swings, slides, ladders, and sand boxes.

As the children played, the adults stood wearily and watched the happy screaming kids enjoying the fruits of their efforts. As I recall, some of the adults had tears of joy in their eyes. I was one of those teary-eyed adults who will never forget the emotions of exhaustion and happiness and the warm feeling of accomplishment. That night was even more special when I looked around at the beautiful wooden structure and thought, "We did this TOGETHER!"

Project Playland began as a dream by a concerned resident and culminated with a community synergy. This synergy designed and built a safe and high-quality playground structure while using a minimum of public funds.

The children of this small town learned a valuable lesson in civic pride and the benefits of the community working together for a common purpose.

The children and adults who helped design and build this playground have been forever changed because their efforts resulted in a long-lasting, beautiful recreational structure. But the longer lasting benefit of Project Playland was the renewed sense of community cooperation and achievement of a community goal. Perhaps due to the fact that the main construction ingredients were not the boards and screws but a rare, intangible asset...community spirit.

RELATED ARTICLE: Borrowed Tools:

1 bobcat 2 boom augers 1 back hoe with a front bucket 1 fork lift 6 orbital jigsaws 45 reversible drills 60 electric extension cords 120 pairs of work gloves 50 carpentry hammers 40 levels 60 nail aprons 5 porta potties 20 metal rakes 30 shovels 2 fire extinguishers 12 electric routers 40 pairs of safety glasses 16 belt sanders 30 circular saws 25 pairs of saw horses 50 tape measures 3 large tents (for prefabrication and food service)