St Rose School Playscape Donated To Haitian Children

By Shannon Hicks

Two volunteer members of the nonprofit organization Kids Around the World, Inc. recently traveled to Newtown pick up a large playscape from St Rose of Lima School that was no longer being used by the children of the faith-based K–8 school. The Illinois-based Kids Around the World is dedicated to helping children and families who have been affected by war, poverty, illness, and natural disasters. One of the ways they achieve their mission is by recycling used but still useable playground equipment in those areas of the world where it would otherwise be an unattainable luxury.

A January work party at the St Rose School playground was the culmination of many weeks of research and deliberation by St Rose Home School Association’s Playground Committee. The committee, chaired by parent volunteer Jim Walsh, has been researching options to enhance the school’s playground. The former playscape had been dismantled several years ago to make way for portable classrooms that are now in use.

“When they took [the former playscape] down, they put it into a pile in a corner of the playground behind the school. It eventually became an issue with children playing on it,” Mr Walsh said this week. “When the committee was formed with a mission of enhancing the playground, the first thing we addressed was what we would do with the old playscape.”

The first suggestion, said Mr Walsh, was to haul the playscape off to the dump.

“The committee felt there must be a better way to utilize the material than to just junk it,” however, said Mr Walsh. It was while researching manufacturers for the school’s new playscape that the committee discovered Kids Around the World (KAW). The Rockford, Ill.-based nonprofit has been refurbishing playgrounds and playscapes since 1986.

“They specifically deal with people, children in need, around the world, who through acts of war, poverty, illness, and natural disasters” are facing difficult lives, Mr Walsh said. Most importantly, the organization’s focus is on children. “We felt our playscape would go full circle. It had fulfilled our needs here, and now it’s going to enhance the lives of children in another country, who certainly need it.”

Mr Walsh said the committee could not find another organization that refurbishes playscapes, and he and the other nine parents and faculty members were pleased with the thought of helping others around the world.

“It was Catholic Schools Week, and we just felt this was the right fit,” he said. “They are a faith-based organization, and that really spoke to us.”

Another reason the committee liked the idea of working with KAW was its commitment to recycling.

“With our new playscape, we talked about doing green,” said Mr Walsh. “This was the ultimate in going green: taking something that would have been junked and refurbishing it and putting it back into use.”

Kids Around the World does not charge donors for the removal work of playgrounds and playscapes. Once playgrounds are inspected, cleaned, repaired and/or painted, they are sold “at a fraction of the cost of a new playground,” according to Kids Around the World literature.

“These playgrounds are resold for at least 70 percent less than what a new one will cost,” said Julie Rearick. She and her husband Bruce drove from their home in Pennsylvania last month to pick up and transport the St Rose School playscape. Most playgrounds moved through KAW, she said this week, end up at orphanages or schools outside the United States.

“You would not believe the number of orphans in Haiti,” said Mrs Rearick. “Kids Around the World has removed and reinstalled more than 200 playgrounds [since the organization was founded in 1995]. They have a specific project going on in Haiti right now, and that’s my focus for right now.”

Once a playscape is promised, KAW arranges for it to be picked up and delivered to its warehouse in Chicago. The St Rose School playscape was picked up on Saturday, January 28. Julie and Bruce Rearick were amazed at what they found when they walked behind the Church Hill Road school building and saw what was waiting for them.

“When they did the dismantling [a few years ago], all of the cement that the footings had been in, had been knocked off,” said Mr Walsh who, along with fellow parent volunteer Ken Kliczewski, helped the Rearicks load up their truck. “So it was all in place, with all of the pieces, and we loaded it right into the truck.”

“Usually [playscapes are] still in the ground, and we bring shovels and other people, and we need to tear it about and dig it up, and it’s a full day project,” said Mrs Rearick.

“This one was very easy,” she added. “We pulled in, loaded it, and left. It was a very pleasant surprise.”

The playscape is also in very good condition, she said.

“In this situation we are hoping that just some of light powdercoating or painting will need to be done, which will save us a lot of time and money,” she said. “It’s all reusable, all of it, and that’s not always the case.”

Mike Young, regional vice president for Kids Around the World, also appreciated the extra work done by St Rose School.

“If a pole is pulled out of the ground completely intact, that makes it much easier for us,” he said this week from his office in Rockford, Ill. “We often will have playscapes arrive that have been cut out of the ground, which means we have to cut and weld new sections onto the base of the poles.

“Whether removing a playscape still in the ground or recreating new poles, it can be very labor and time intensive,” said Mr Young. “When done properly, a playscape that comes to us with the poles still intact is a wonderful gift.”

Friends of KAW handle any powdercoating — the application of corrosion resistant, long-lasting paint — that needs to be done. All other refurbishment work is done by KAW.

Used playgrounds are always sent outside the United States, due to liability reasons, said Mr Young. KAW does occasionally arrange for new playgrounds to be placed within the US, but those are new from manufacturers.

Mrs Rearick expects the St Rose School donation will be shipped to Haiti and installed by June.

“I visited a location that wants the playground, Grace International, in Carrefour,” she said. Located about eight miles from Haiti’s capital city of Port au Prince, the former girls’ school was destroyed in the January 2010 earthquake. After the earthquake the compound was opened to people who lost their home; more than 20,000 people have reportedly lived in tents within the 20-acre space since.

“Children are going to school in the church, and there is a perfect, level location,” said Mrs Rearick. “It’s flat, and clean, and it would be perfect. It would be open to the children going to school as well as the children living in the tents right now.”

Once the former Newtown playscape is reinstalled, Kids Around the World will send photos and details back to St Rose School to complete the giving circle and allow the school community to celebrate their donation.

Meanwhile, children at St Rose School can look forward to having another playscape to enjoy, said Mr Walsh, by spring or early summer. The students currently have one, but the school usually has two available for its lower grades.

St Rose School Principal Mary Maloney is not only happy that the old playscape has been donated for someone else’s use, but she has found an unexpected lesson for her students.

“We put up a poster in the hallway of the school, letting the children know what had happened to their old playscape,” she said this week, “and the kids are very excited about this.

“A lot of them have said ‘Where’s Haiti?’ so this has been teaching them about that country, too.”