A Jennings County school won a national playground prize in the spring. Now it’s time to unwrap the package, so to speak.
The public is invited to an official ribbon-cutting ceremony at 5 p.m. Thursday at North Vernon Elementary School, 810 W. Walnut St.
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.
Culturelle executives and a company video crew will attend the ribbon-cutting ceremony, said North Vernon Elementary physical education teacher Karen Villa.
Construction will begin Monday, and volunteers will help with finishing touches Wednesday and Thursday, Villa said.
In February, a committee selected North Vernon Elementary; Abraham Wing School in Glen Falls, New York; New Haven Elementary in Columbus, Missouri; Perkins Elementary School in Newark, New York; and Waupaca (Wisconsin) Learning Center as the finalists.
The competition opened to the public for online voting from Feb. 15 to March 15. North Vernon Elementary, which led from the start, received 49,385 votes — almost 5,000 more than second-place New Haven Elementary.
That margin was a little too close for comfort for North Vernon Elementary Principal Nicole Johnson.
“I thought we were cooked, but then our community got behind us,” Johnson said.
Because the school’s playground equipment had not been replaced since 1972, efforts were already underway when Villa saw the ad for the national competition.
A plan for $100,000 of renovations to the playground had been approved, and the North Vernon Elementary Parent Teacher Organization, school staff and volunteers had already raised $20,000 when it was announced the school would receive the additional grant. That money was also used to improve the school’s playground facilities.
