News | Article
from The Press Enterprise
Fontana students get serious about
playground
by Michael Mello
Fontana (June 23, 2007) - When third-grade students
tired of the graffiti and worn-out equipment at a park next door
to North Tamarind Elementary School last year, they decided to
take action.
Their teacher, Molly Gentile, helped them craft letters to
Mayor Mark Nuaimi about their concerns.
A few months after the letters were sent out, about 25
would-be architects sat down last week at North Tamarind's
cafeteria to design their new playground.
The city, the Inland Empire United Way, The Home Depot and
the Joe Gibbs racing team have pooled resources and plan to
construct the new playground in one day on Aug. 30, using the
children's drawings of dream playgrounds as a blueprint.
The students' letters caught Nuaimi's attention when they
arrived. He invited them to voice their concerns at a meeting of
the city's Parks and Recreation Commission.
Coincidentally, at the same time, the United Way's Hands On
Inland Empire community service program was looking for an area
park or playground to renovate, and contacted the mayor. The
children's request, in turn, caught the attention of KaBoom!, a
charity arm of The Home Depot that constructs playgrounds across
the nation.
Third-grader Michael Rivera, 9, remembers hearing recently
that a new playground would be built.
"I was happy," he said. "We wanted a pool, basketball courts,
a swing and rock climbing (walls)."
Some of the requested playground attractions were exotic,
like one boy's yearning for a bridge leading to the "snake
chamber." Most of them were more standard, such as bike trails,
merry-go-rounds and rock-climbing walls.
Sixth-grader Andrea Zelaya, 12, already had drawn up a plan
for a prospective playground before KaBoom! invited the students
to do so. She sketched out soccer fields, a jungle gym with
slides and monkey bars, a feature she said the park once had but
no longer does.
"It's OK (now)," she said of the park, "but there's not a lot
of stuff to do."
After the letter-writing campaign, the city paid $150,000 to
renovate North Tamarind Park's restrooms and make the park
wheelchair accessible, Deputy Public Works Director Chuck Hays
said. Earlier this month, the City Council approved another
$75,000 to match KaBoom!'s donation of new equipment.
Reach Michael Mello at 909-806-3056 or
mmello@PE.com
< view all news
|
