Playground Project Hits $130,000 Mark
A project to revamp the playground at Woodsdale Elementary School has now reached more than $130,000 in donations, according to Principal Ashlea Minch.
Volunteers worked earlier this month to plant boxwoods and decorative grasses around the playground. This greenery surrounds bollards that sit in front of a shiny new fence and serve as barriers between students outside at recess and vehicles traveling on nearby Bethany Pike.
A banner now hangs on the fence at one end of the playground greeting motorists turning onto Bethany Pike from National Road. It thanks volunteers Stacy and Tanner Russell, Jeremy Hodge, Valley Fence, JD&E Contracting and Four Seasons Landscaping for their efforts.
Later, advertising will be placed at the spot to raise money for upkeep of the revamped playground.
Minch isn’t certain whether new playground equipment will be placed in time for students’ use this fall, but it will be purchased. Minch had promised supporters the playground would get monkey bars, a slide and other items if more than $100,000 was raised for the project.
She reported this week the amount had reached more than $130,000, with more donations coming in to the school.
“We’re awaiting final landscaping — the placement of river rock and such,” she said. “The next thing is the finishing of our black top, and repairing it. This is so even if we do not get the playground equipment this year, it will be ready when we are ready.”
Sections of the blacktop are being resurfaced with a rubberized safety compound that is required under all playground equipment.
The new playground will not have swings because a larger safety area would have to be resurfaced, and the process is expensive, according to Minch.
When it is completed, the playground also will be handicapped-accessible.
Those still wishing to donate to the playground should call the school at 304-243-0378.
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