Volunteers Build Playground for Fifth Avenue

Fifth Avenue School's 260 elementary students will be greeted with a special Halloween gift this morning, thanks to a volunteer community effort that took place over the weekend.

Nearly a dozen workers gathered on an unseasonably chilly Saturday morning to install a playground on the backlot of the school. The equipment, a roughly 20X20 set of bars, chains and slides, was taken from Second Avenue Elementary, a neighboring school that has been closed and abandoned for nearly a decade.

Between digging, building and setting the unit, the group gave up a nearly a full day of hard labor, but volunteers were all smiles Saturday afternoon, despite efforts which may have left them, dirty, tired and cold.

"Community- that's what it's all about - helping each other, and that's what we do here," said Estelle Bubble. "We have an awesome group." 

Bubble, who has worked in the cafeteria since 1999, was a student at , as was her daughter years later. "This school has a lot of history," she said. After driving by the unused playground at Second Avenue for years, Bubble began the push to get the unit moved to her school. "I fought to get it here," she said.

In addition to securing help with the physical labor, equipment, from bulldozers and cement pourers to hammers and shovels, all had to be donated.

"These are tough times, but you have to do whatever you can to improve things," said Principal Ron Celio.

City Councilman Christopher Beauchamp and community member Ray Riel Sr. were key forces in bringing the project together, donating time, equipment and materials. Beauchamp and his wife joined School Committee candidate Anthony J. Gabriele, along with Ray Riel Jr., Shane Cullington, Kelsey George, Heidi Almstrom, Melissa Bubble and others at 7 a.m. on Saturday to start the project. By 11 a.m., Adamsdale of Pawtucket began pouring donated concrete. donated lunch.

"We always don't have a lot of money at Fairmount Schools," said Bubble. "But it doesn't take a lot of money to come together at times like this."