Introducing the NEW Waddington Playground

What started out as simple question by Waddington parent John Bell… "Why doesn't Waddington have a playground?" ended only months later on Saturday September 10, 2011 with the construction of Waddington Elementary’ s first ever onsite playspace.

The day began at 6:30 a.m. when playground committee members John Bell, Jessica Beauchaine, Suzie Lake, Kim Sorrentino, Sue Holstein, and Michelle Saveory embarked onto the site to begin the preparation for the day. The committee made sure that all aspects of the community build were taken into consideration. We established a registration center, first aid station, water stations, food areas and children's activities. We provided breakfast and lunch with most items donated to us by local businesses and community members themselves.

Before 8:00 in the morning there were over a dozen plus volunteers unpacking the playground equipment with Mike Parody from Playworld Systems at the helm. As the hours went by, more and more community volunteers started to arrive. While some of the volunteers were directed to the playground structure itself, others were directed to the additional activities that were going on that day. Diane Rodgers and Carol Baker from the Verizon Pioneers Volunteer Network came for the entire day to provide guidance to the volunteers that were painting the stencils onto the new blacktop. They also donated all the paint, rollers, and brushes and provided us with a United States map, solar system, hopscotch, and foursquare stencil.

While the adults were busy building and painting their children were also busy. The committee made sure that there were many activities to keep them entertain. There was face painting, music, arts and crafts, bubbles, a bounce house and a demonstration from The Self Defense Training Center. Motivational speaker and professional BMX rider Kevin Robinson was also on hand to sign autographs for the children.

During the afternoon hours, volunteers kept busy mixing cement and raking mulch that was being dumped in by a donated backhoe-loader. The Sugar Shack mobile stopped by to offer free lemonade to all the children and volunteers. It was a nice refreshing treat for all the hard workers.

By the day's end more than 150 volunteers had showed up at the build site to lend a helping hand. It was a true sense of community. We had everyone from parents and teachers to school committee members and politicians, all working on some aspect of the playground. By three o'clock the playground was complete. Every pole was set in place, the stencils were drying, and the mulch was starting to settle. We had a ribbon cutting ceremony that afternoon for all the wonderful volunteers. Since the playground cement needed to settle and dry for 48 hours, we decided to have a repeat ribbon cutting ceremony on Monday morning for all the children of Waddington Elementary. All 460 plus students, teachers, and faulty came outside to celebrate with the playground committee, school committee members and Superintendent Daft. As the gigantic scissors appeared to cut the ribbon, the cheers from the children got louder and the smiles got wider. The smiles on their faces were priceless. And what started out as a simple question ten months earlier "Why doesn't Waddington have a playground?" ended with another question. "What's next?"