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OUR NEW PLAYGROUND, January 2010
For the past 10 years our CPNS families have been selling cookie dough and wrapping paper, bidding on auction items and taking their kids to pizza nights. Thanks to all of those fundraising efforts, CPNS has finally put in a new playground! Thank you to all of our alumni who supported this project over the past decade!
Two years ago we had enough money to start the planning process. Bill Enloe and Nancy Rahimi led the effort, which included surveying the parents about their desires, interviewing playground companies, drawing up plans and searching for equipment unique from other playgrounds in our area.
After the planning was complete, there was a delay in breaking ground because our lease with the church expired. As we negotiated a new lease, we remembered how lucky we are to have so much outdoor space for our kids to play. It is not only spacious, but safely fenced, interesting, green and provides so many opportunities for our kids to explore.
Once the lease was signed, we were able to break ground in October. We saved money by having parents do specific parts of the project. On the weekends we dug trenches, laid pipes for irrigation, dug holes, poured cement, rotatilled the sand and much more. The playground crews installed the equipment for the jungle gyms, moved our monkey bars, poured a soft mat surface and craned in a huge climbing rock. We also installed some cool outdoor instruments, including a steel drum and xylophone. The kids enjoyed watching the construction crews at work with their tractors, jackhammers and diggers.
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In the spring, with Rusty Hopewell’s leadership, we are going to construct planter boxes, create a new garden and plant new trees to add shade and greenery. This stage will finish off our playground project by the end of the school year.
A super big thank you goes out to Bill Enloe. Bill started working on the project in 2008 when he was a 4pm parent, and his daughter graduated before we could break ground. But, since he was so invested in the project and wanted to see it successfully completed, he finished the project as an alumni. Thank you so much, Bill!!
Also, a big thank you to Nancy Rahimi for her leadership in the project. Nancy has a wealth of knowledge and experience in redoing playgrounds, and her expertise for the details was invaluable. She made sure that the equipment was appropriate, challenging and fun for all of our 2-5 year olds.
Greg Thornhill is a CPNS parent, as well as a Congregational church member. Greg spent countless hours communicating between us and the church board of trustees and helped us get approval for the playground. This was a giant help, and we want to thank him a lot!
Finally, we would like to thank Jason Alger. Jason is a new parent at CPNS this year, and he (and his dad) jumped right in to every step of the project. Jason also organized his company, Granite Rock, to donate a significant amount of sand to bolster the sandbox. Thank you Granite Rock! Granite Rock provides a complete line of building materials, masonry and landscape supplies, and is located at 355 Blomquist Street in Redwood City.