Many Hands Make Light Work Building Windward Beach Playground

Later this week, if the weather holds. a contractor will begin pouring a rubber mixture into the large rectangle at Windward Beach park, then smoothing the surface in place.

It will be among the finishing touches on a new playground there, one that offers equipment to appeal to children of all ages and abilities, but especially to those with special needs.

“It’s been a labor of love,” Brick Councilwoman Andrea Zapcic, council liaison to the township’s recreation committee, said Saturday morning, as volunteers worked to install a wheelchair ramp for one of the signature pieces, a “cruiser,” designed for children who use wheelchairs, which can be locked in place while the ride sways.

The playground, which replaced the township’s old tot lot, was designed to include children who have autism and other challenges, Zapcic said, with sensory-based equipment.

The playground, funded in part by a grant from KaBoom!, a nonprofit organization that works to make sure children have opportunities and safe places to play, was the suggestion of Recreation Department head Dan Santaniello, Zapcic said, and Tara Paxton, the township’s grant administrator and assistant planner, “ran with it,” she said.

Santaniello said the old tot lot was no longer ADA-compliant. “We were at the point where we were going to start failing inspections because of it,” he said. Replacing it with the inclusive playground simply made sense, he said.

On Saturday, more than three dozen volunteers -- including the Brick Memorial High School boys soccer team -- arrived at the park to help assemble the various pieces of equipment. By 10 a.m. most of the assembly was done, and the volunteers, who included Mayor John G. Ducey, Police Chief Rick Bergquist, several council members and members of the Brick Board of Education, were beginning to install the equipment, carefully checking to make sure pieces were level before and as concrete was poured to secure the metal posts.

Lisa and Anthony Grassi came out with his son, Zack, a student at Brick Memorial, and niece Lisa Wagenhoffer, a student at Toms River Intermediate North, to help out, inspired to help locally because Lisa works with special-needs children as a speech pathologist at a school in Yonkers, N.Y.

“I like to get the kids involved,” Lisa Grassi said.

“It’s always good to give back the community and do things together off the soccer field,” Brick Memorial boys soccer coach Steve Ferullo said. “A lot of these boys have younger brothers or sisters who come to play at this park, so this was a natural for them.”

Board of Education member Frank Pannucci Jr. said the inclusive playground was something that makes Brick a better place to live, because it serves the needs of children with special needs.

“Almost a quarter of our school population is special needs,” Pannucci said. “It’s great to have this for those kids.”

While the volunteers tightened bolts and drilled post holes, Zapcic said, they were being overseen by contractors from Corby Associates, a licensed playground installer, to ensure all of the work was done to meet very strict technical standards, which define things as specific as how many threads of a screw can be exposed, and more. The installation will be inspected to ensure all of those technical safety requirements have been met, she said.

“It’s great seeing all of these volunteers,” Ducey said. “I’m glad we have so many skilled residents making it safe for the kids.”

By noon, most of the work had been done, with voluteers to simply wait for concrete to be mixed to fill holes and to cure in others. Zapcic said a contractor was expected to fill the lot with gravel on Monday, leaving about 5 inches for the poured-in-place surface. That surface is used in most playgrounds now because it doesn’t have to be replaced constantly, and because it has the highest rating for impact attenuation -- otherwise known as cushioning a child’s fall. Playground falls are a significant cause of trips to the emergency room by children each year, according to the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons.

Once the surface is poured -- a three-day process, she said -- and has time to dry and inspections are completed, the playgrounds will be opened for play, possibly in as soon as two weeks.

Check out the township’s photos of the event, posted to its Facebook page, here.

Patch photos from the day can be found on the Brick Patch Facebook page, here.

(PHOTO: Councilman Paul Mummolo tightens a bolt while others pour concrete around a pole for the swingset. Credit: Karen Wall)