Community Comes Out to Break Ground on Kent Elementary School Playground

Moms, dads, grandfathers, alumni and community members gave up their Saturday morning to help build a new playground for students. What was once a simple concrete lot with an unusually high basketball hoop and kickball bases will soon be home to fun equipment occupying the school's back right corner.

The project was made possible by an impressive fund-raising effort on behalf of students, faculty, community members and the PTA. According to current PTA President Luisa Abatecola, the fundraising for the project took place during the 2010-2011 academic year and raised "a little over $20,000."

"We did a series of fundraisers," said Abatecola, a school committee member who  is entering her last year as PTA President. "We did a silent auction evening, we've done an old fashioned catalog fundraiser, we've sold candy bars."

According to Abatecola, the new playground for Kent's students was part of a "two-stage project" and began with the building of an outdoor gym for kindergarden students last year. She estimated that $9,000 was raised for the completion of that project alone.

Abatecola went on to list the many individuals and local businesses that helped in the fundraising effort, including the where the the school held the silent auction and ate free of charge.

The strangeness of having no formal playground on the site a bustling elementary school was not lost on Abatecola, who has a child entering the fifth grade at Kent this upcoming year.

"With today's society trying to promote healthy living and healthy play, we felt as though the kids really needed a playground," she said.

Adults were not the only people in the school's community who saw the value of building the outdoor facility. Soon-to-be 5th grader Alison Batty was on hand Saturday morning with the plan of helping lay the mulch.

"[Recess] was sort of boring, and it wasn't really that fun," Batty said. "We played on the cement and played kick ball, but sometimes you get sick of that."

Batty said that all of her friends are talking about the new addition to their recess, saying that everyone she knows is "happy and excited."

"The kindergarden got [a playground] last year, so now it's our turn," Batty said excitedly.

While many students played nearby as their parents and grandparents helped with the construction, Kent Heights Elementary School Principal Fatima Avila took to the dirt with a wrench, as she helped others assemble pieces of the future site.

Avila spoke to how fluid the process was, citing the shared sense of purpose in completing the project between her and other key players.

"The stars were aligned," Avila said.

"The fact that they saw that we were able to raise the funds in a short amount of time to build the kindergarden playground, I think it was important to go ahead with that first, so they could see that the money was being used for exactly what we said it was going to be used for," Avila said.

On the issue of funds, Avila said that she was "amazed" that the PTA was able to raise the amount needed to make the new playground possible. She also said that the school's staff personally donated money, as well.

Most impressive to Avila was the role that her students played in the fund-raising process. When asked what it was like to sit back and watch little people do big things, Avila said that she is continually "inspired by the little people."

"[The students] continually come to myself and my Feinstein coordinator with ideas to raise money for the community," she said. "So not only have they raised money for their own playground, but they've also raised money for the American Cancer Society, Wish Come True and the Ronald McDonald House. These kids are always thinking about the community"

Avila added: "It's not surprising to me that we were able to raise all this money, because we have all these little soldiers going out trying to do good."

Avila said that she anticipates a lot of excitement on the first day of school for the upcoming year. There will be a ribbon-cutting ceramony much like the one held last year for the kindergarten playground.

According to Abatecola, the playground cost "somewhere around $19,500 dollars." While the effort raised slightly more than that, she said that every dime will be put into the project, and she hopes to add benches alongside the new equipment. The group of volunteers, who began Friday morning, plans to work all day Saturday to complete the project.