Over 100 volunteers helped install a new playground at East Lake Elementary School
Over 100 volunteers converged at East Lake Elementary School Saturday morning to help finish the installation of a new playground that has been the vision of school officials for the past two years. Employees from PlayCore, a local recreation company, and members of the Kiwanis Club of Downtown Chattanooga, were joined by teachers and administrators from East Lake Elementary School to help bring the dream of a new playground for over 650 students to reality.
Determined to bridge the gap in their fundraising efforts, East Lake Elementary School was able to gain assistance from multiple community partners who offered grants, free services and materials, as well as free labor to achieve their remaining goals.
“After months of grant writing and reaching out to the local community, our fundraising efforts had finally plateaued," said Mrs. Lancaster, principal at East Lake Elementary School. "Thanks to the matching funds offer from Play & Park Structures, a PlayCore company, and the Kiwanis Club of Chattanooga, we were able to purchase an even larger playground than anticipated. Now our students can’t wait for their recess time, so they can all play together on this amazing new structure!”
Earlier in the year, the Kiwanis Club organized a Business Pentathlon event in which local companies fielded teams of four to seven employees that were combined with East Lake teachers, parents and their children. These teams then competed in five different athletic events to determine the overall champions that would be recognized on a special sign mounted at the new playground site.
Participants in this Pentathlon included Chattanooga Area Schools Federal Credit Union, Tennessee Valley Federal Credit Union, Miller and Martin, Aladdin Printing, Brock Insurance Agency, PlayCore, Collier Construction, Elliot Davis Decosimo and Southern Champion Tray.
“We hope to present this Pentathlon event on an annual basis so that we can fund new playgrounds for deserving communities every year here in the greater Chattanooga area,” said Robert Dann, chairman of the Kommandos Committee for the Kiwanis Club of Chattanooga. Each team donated $500 to provide a team for the competition, and the overall champions were the teams from Chattanooga Area Schools Federal Credit Union and PlayCore.
Robert Farnsworth, CEO of PlayCore, said, “It is so heartwarming to see the business community come out and wholeheartedly support the effort to bring healthy, physical play opportunities to underserved communities. We are excited to be a part of this new playground installation.”
Several companies also provided grants for the playground equipment, including Lowe’s and TVA. In order to prepare the site for installation, Blue Line Rentals and Tag Equipment provided a bobcat and 12” auger, respectively. Goodwill industries provided a large trailer to store the playground materials on site, and Sequatchie Concrete delivered the concrete materials to help secure the final phase of the playground installation.
East Lake Elementary is a Title 1 school with a diverse population of just over 650 students. They are currently at 133 percent of their student capacity, and 100 percent of the children receive free lunches. The existing playground is about 12 years old, has broken parts and only accommodates about half of the students during their recess rotation. The school was in need of a larger, safer playground so that all of the students would have an opportunity to play.