Building a Playground

Yesterday, I participated in one of those 'feel good about humanity' efforts: with 100 other volunteers from my community, we built a new playground at the park in City Park (my neighbourhood). The community association has been fundraising for new playground for about 5 years. This year they got tremendous support from the City and from a number of groups, including the philanthropic wing of Home Depot (doesn't that sound like an oxymoron).

I am not fond of Home Depot, since they move their big boxes into our communities and put small local stores out of business (in fact, in our family we call Home Depot 'The Evil Empire'). I must say, though, that being involved in their 'build a playground in a day' made me feel all proud and happy. It's so amazing to see all the great stuff for kids that just wasn't there the day before. It's like magic.

I spent most of the day helping organize the food tables for volunteers and picking up trash and recycling, but right in the middle there were a really great couple of hours where I was learning how to mix cement. As with all newly-acquired skills, it was really fun. Someone even claims to have seen me doing it on the news last night!

Anyway, after a day of lots of people working together to a common goal, suddenly we had a playground! Wow. I suppose that the speed of it all is especially dazzling for someone who is used to renovations that take centuries...

City Park has seen a great influx of young families in the last 10 years, and so there are lots and lots of kids. This playground is going to be so awesome (the cement around the posts needs to dry first, of course). I'll tell you how it went once it's been Sprout-tested.