Spring Glen School Playground Gets a Name

The newly-renovated Spring Glen School playground will soon be known as "Rosie's Playground" after the late wife of the man whose large donation made the new playground possible.

But who that person is remains a mystery -- he doesn't want his name to be known, Board of Education members said this week when approving the new name.

The playground cost about $130,000 to construct, and shortly before work was scheduled to start, it became apparent that they would be short about $30,000, Spring Glen PTA vice-president Avi Kamrat said.

"We had already placed the order for the equipment and thought we had the exucating work lined up but it didn't come through," he said. 

He was in a meeting about the playground when Spring Glen principal Vanessa Ditta pulled him out, saying someone needed to speak with him, Kamrat said.

"She said, 'a parent wants to see you, which I thought was strange," Kamrat said. "He said his wife had just passed away, and asked me how much money we still needed for the playground."

He told the man that they needed somewhere between $20,000 and $30,000, Kamrat said. "He asked if he took care of that if we would name the playground in his wife's honor," he said.

He told the man it was up to to the Board of Education to decide on a name for the playground, Kamrat said, and that he would make the request to the board, which he did this week. The board then unanimously approved the name "Rosie's Playground" to honor the man's late wife. 

"I think this is a tremendous gift to the town," board member Austin Cesare said. "From start to finish, this was a great effort on the part of the Spring Glen PTA -- they put together a playground the kids can enjoy."

"This was a wonderful act of charity right when everything was on the brink of falling apart," board member Michael Dolan said. 

Last November volunteers spent three days installing the new playground at the Whitney Avenue school. It was shortly before that when an arrangement for excuvating work fell through and it would cost up to $30,000 to get the work done, which is when the man stepped up.

Board member Myron Hul said that while he was appreciative of the man's generosity, he questioned the board's bypassing its newly-adopted naming policy. It was only last month that the board approved the new guidelines for naming buildings and facilities, he said, and already it was going outside those policies in naming the playground.

"We just approved the policy a month ago that calls for a specific criteria, and the wording of this motion exempts" following that policy, Hul said. "The issue is either live by the policy or scrap it.

"An exception should be for an overwhelming reason," Hul said, "and this is not an overwhelming reason."

The fact that the donor wants to remain anonymous should be respected, Dolan said. 

"That's why I think this should be exempt from the policy," he said.

"We have policies in place, and there are reasons for them," Cesare said, "but thinking of the bind this organization was in at the last minute, it's hard to oppose."