KaBoom! Play matters for all kids

So…I’ve never been one to volunteer (except for when the Girl Scouts made us sing at a retirement center, and since then I have been ridiculously freaked out by really old, drooling people – I’m sorry. Some things you never get past, even when you are well on the way to being what you fear…).

Getting ready to start…

A few weeks ago, however, our PR rep at the hospital sent out an email asking for volunteers for a KaBoom playground at a local park, downtown. The pre-build would be today, and the actual build would be on Saturday, the 14th of November. I signed up for all the days, because a day of hard labor is always better than a day behind a desk at work. Plus, I am handy with miter saws, measuring tapes, paint, primer, rollers and brushes.

The site…

I arrived at 7:15 to help our PR person set up Bagels, cream cheese and coffee, provided by our local Panera Bread. After breakfast and registration, all of us met behind a tractor trailer to start unloading playground parts, equipment and hardware from the truck to a static trailer onsite.

Moving the HUGE slide…

Prior to this, we signed up for the teams we wanted to be on. While my love of the miter saw was there, I also love to paint, so I jumped on the “Prime” team, which scraped the old paint off and primed the Kiwanis train station.

Getting the RIDICULOUS amount of heavy playground equipment out of the truck to the storage trailer was a labor of love by twenty or so volunteers. Some of the equipment was light, and some required 8 or more people! I would have taken more pictures, but I was busy carrying heavy stuff. (When we all introduced ourselves we had to state our favorite way to play, and mine was walking/jogging and weight-lifting…so go figure…)

I met people at work that I didn’t know, re-connected with people I did know, and met an employee’s brother! One of my team said, “Oh! You’re Johnny’s wife!” Will I EVER live that down?

This was MY project du jour. 🙂

So, I gave up a day of PTO, and for a good cause. I hope that my grand-babies will play on this playground someday.

The power of one is pretty amazing. You multiply that by a BUNCH of socially aware people? That equates to something simply amazing!

I can’t wait to see what the finished product looks like! (Especially since I carried a couple of caterpillar heads and a body to the build trailer!)

I have to say that while I was surrounded by many people that were born and raised here? Even after only having been here almost 20 years (that will happen in April of 2016), I felt like one of the family! (Small towns/growing towns=tight-knit…just sayin’.)

Becca & me…

I will update you after Saturday. We need to be there at 0630, and I’ll be a mulching-by-the-fountain fool, but hope to have pix to share with you of that and the finished project.

Until next time? Don’t be afraid to spend some time working to give back to the community that gives to you!