Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Land Ho!

Ahoy me maties!

Shiver me timbers, after nearly two years without a playground Lauren and I can finally play pirate!

It required a sizable chunk of buried treasure (almost $250,000) to bring this dream to fruition but through unmitigated perseverance our new playground avoided the fate of Davy Jones' locker.

Structural setbacks caused unexpected delays and had the contractors walking the plank time and time again. But on Monday, October 25, we cut the proverbial ribbon and invited our enthusiastic students to explore.

The new playground is not just for pyrates, oh no, it also brings smiles to landlubbers as well. There is a wee "tree house" for the littlest revelers (too small a space for me, although I did try to enter) and lots of slides, ramps, ropes and poles.  It even has a climbing wall! And monkeys!

Blimey!

We'll be enjoying this for many years to come.

At least that's the plan.

6 comments:

Barbara said...

I hope your new playground lasts longer than the wooden structures that were in vogue when our children were small. They turned out to have a lot of problems, not the least of which was splinters! That's a really high price tag for a playground I must say. How does a NY PS afford that kind of money?

Gary said...

One of our speech teachers, Iris, applied for a grant. The grant was approved many years ago and it took an unbelievably long time to see this project to completion. There were structural issues (the ground needed to be rebuilt - it is above the basement and was about to collapse in some areas - new windows needed to be put in because the new floor with padding and all blocked existing windows, new walls and handicapped ramps had to be built and on and on.

The next step is to add a greenhouse (to grow some of our own food) and meditation garden so we can hold classes outside.

Pauline said...

arrrrrgh! treasure indeed! If you have need of a swashbuckling, sword-wielding shipmate, just ring the bell ;) Bet the kids are having a wonderful time on their new equipment.

Betsy Brock said...

Wow! Congratulation! Sounds like it was a long time coming with plenty of blood, sweat and tears! Well, maybe not blood..haha..but you know what I mean! I'm sure all the kids are just thrilled!

lettuce said...

blimey indeed!

what fun - congrats getting it all sorted and done.

a greenhouse too, that would be brilliant

Gary said...

Pauline - Ahoy me matie! What fun it would be to swashbuckle with ye on me fair ship. I think us playing together with abandon would cause quite a few children to follow suit. We'd have a ship full of pirates before you could hoist the mast.

Betsy - It was a long time in coming and the funny thing is we have had rain most every day since it has opened. It simply taunts the children now even more.

Letty - We also are involved with the Farmboxes program which teaches students how to grow food and then harvest it for eating. I am looking forward to that as well.

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