Plymouth Playgrounds Get Second Life—Around the World

For the last 15 years, kids of all ages have played on the South Shore Park playground, seeing how far each one could jump from a swing or how fast they can walk up a slide.

The old playground has seen better days and a new set is on the way.

But don't worry: that old playground equipment will still get to see the light of day.

Knowing the playground could still be put to good use, Park Maintenance Supervisor Dan Heitke got in touch with Paul Bierhaus, a board member of a local nonprofit called Kids Around the World.

“There was nothing wrong with the playground—it was older,
the safety codes had changed and the neighborhood wanted a new playground for their kids to play on,” said Heitke.

Bierhaus said the nonprofit organization recycles playground equipment from numerous cities around Minnesota, refurbishes them and then sets them back up in countries where youth don’t have playgrounds.

“It’s the green thing to do, it’s not just being thrown away
in a landfill somewhere,” said Bierhaus. “This playground equipment still has usable life and cities like Plymouth save money because we take it down for free and then we donate it to a city, where the kids have nothing to play on.”

Bierhaus, who’s been with the organization 12 years, says they
are able to do this thanks to several local churches, the Plymouth Rotary Club and other rotary clubs locally and worldwide that join in a partnership and use a match grant program to pay for the expenses involved with these projects. 

“The playground from South Shore Park in Plymouth will most likely go to Arusha, Tanzania, an area in Africa where there is a school of 600 kids and no playground,” Beirhaus said. 

The organization is still looking for funding and volunteers to make this project complete, he said.

“We need to raise about $25,000 to get the playground that used to be here to Illinois to be refurbished and then shipped to Tanzania,” Bierhaus said.

Beirhaus has participated in 20 to 30 playground re-builds in 20 different countries. 

“By August, the Kids Around the World program will have completed 216 playground projects in 40 different countries,” Beirhaus said.

As for the children living in and around South Shore Park in Plymouth, they will get to enjoy one of the newest playgrounds in two years.  

Heitke said the old one was taken down at the end of May and the new one is up and ready for play.  This is the second Plymouth park that has been donated to a city in a different country.

“Plymouth’s Shiloh Park playground was taken down last year and
replaced with a new one, and the local rotary clubs and Kids Around the World sent that one to Glogow, Poland,” Heitke said. “We are just so glad that these playgrounds are being recycled, reused and having a second life in another country.”