By Ashley M. Casey
Associate Editor
After years of fundraising, the Allen Road Elementary PTO is ready to build a new playground this weekend. The PTO is asking the community to volunteer to help build the playground.
“We’ve been raising money for probably a good four years now,” said Heidi Soyster, chair of the ARE playground project. “Dave Lunden, our principal, talked to the district and the district matched our donation up to $25,000.”
Soyster said having a contractor put the playground together would add to the cost considerably, so the PTO and North Syracuse schools are saving about 30% by having volunteers build the structure. The project comes in around $60,000, Soyster said.
Facilities staff from the North Syracuse Central School District will prepare the site, lay wood chips and dig post holes, but community members will assemble the playground equipment.
“There will be people that are actually slinging hammers and turning wrenches. You don’t need to be a construction expert but you need to be capable of following instructions,” Soyster said.
In addition to builders, the PTO is looking for volunteers to help with support tasks as well: “Keeping our volunteers fed and watered, picking up trash, getting tools to the builders,” Soyster said.
“If we don’t have especially the building volunteers, it’s not going to happen,” she said. “You want to make sure you have enough people to get it done.”
ARE is contracting with a Jamesville-Based playground company, Denzak Recreational Design.
“They’re the ones that built the Onondaga Lake Park playground and the ARISE at the Farm playground,” Soyster said.
While the current playground at ARE is safe, Soyster said, it is an aging structure.
“That’s nearly 25 years old. It’s a wooden playground so there’s problems with splinters and bees,” she said.
The PTO consulted with the principal, school nurse and current students about what features they would like to see in the new playground. The kids brainstormed their dream playgrounds, mapping out their wishlists in crayon and marker.
ARE students will be voting on some of the play panels to be added to the new playground.
“This company that we worked with is very knowledgeable in ADA features, so we tried to work in some play panels,” Soyster said. “One of the play panels that we for sure will have on there is a sign language panel.”
Soyster said the PTO and its co-presidents, Gina Baker and Nikki Bomasuto, wish to extend “a huge thank you to the district and the donors, the parents, the sponsors, and certainly the volunteers.”
“It is a group effort and a village effort for sure,” she said.
The playground build takes place Oct. 19 and 20 at Allen Road Elementary School, located at 803 Allen Road, North Syracuse. To sign up, visit tinyurl.com/AREPlayground.
