NORTH VERNON — North Vernon Elementary School unveiled the reward it reaped from strong community support.
The new playground equipment it won in a national competition through online voting was revealed to the public June 28 during a ribbon cutting ceremony.
North Vernon Elementary won $73,000 for a new playground, which is replacing equipment that is more than 40 years old. It competed against hundreds of schools nationally for the grant from the Culturelle Kids Playground Project and KaBOOM.
North Vernon Elementary received 49,385 votes — almost 5,000 more than the runner-up.
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The North Vernon Parent Teachers Organization also raised more than $20,000 in additional funds for the playground.
The brightly colored new playground equipment had to be properly assembled and in place by the time of the ribbon cutting. Work began early in the week and about 50 volunteers worked all day June 28 in the sweltering heat to finish installing the playground equipment at the school in time for the for the celebration.
Among the volunteers helping with the installation and the celebration were Eric Kelly, his son Christopher, who will be a first-grader at North Vernon Elementary next month, and his 3-year-old daughter Catherine. They helped organize the parking lot in preparation for the celebration.
Christopher said he was excited about the new playground.
“Oh yes, but it is not just for me. It’s for all the other kids, too,” he said.
KaBOOM spokesperson Maggie Bahrmasel traveled from Washington, D.C., to help install the new equipment and take part in the celebration. Representatives from Culturelle also were present.
“I was very excited to be here for this because I was curious to see what kind of a community this was. I knew it was going to be a unique experience because the community really had to pull together to be able to beat all the others by so many votes,” a smiling Bahrmasel said.
“Now that I am here, I see this is really a unique opportunity to see what cooperation-in-action actually looks like. So many people have come here today to help put this all together. North Vernon Elementary really did deserve to win their new playground.”
Justin Moos, owner of Kokomo-based Countryside Play Structures, was also on hand to make sure all the safety standards were in place on the new equipment purchased from his company.
“We worked with the school and the volunteers to cut the cost as much as we could. Because there were so many volunteers to work to put the playground together, that saved on labor costs, which meant they could get more equipment for the money,” Moos said.
