Volunteers Ready To Build Playground 1,200 Workers To Erect $115,000 ‘Toy’ In Cda

“Bring a hammer and a casserole.”

That’s the rallying cry this week at Coeur d’Alene City Park, where some 1,200 volunteers will be building a 15,000-square-foot playground.

After more than a year of planning, Fort Sherman Playground Park will take shape during the next five days. Work will begin today at 6 p.m. and continue until Sunday when the elaborate structure is expected to be complete.

Ginny Carper, who has organized free food for volunteers, knows one of the best ways to keep workers happy is to keep them well-fed.

“I like desserts myself, but casseroles will do,” Carper said. “It’s going to be lots of fun. They won’t even know they’re working hard.”

Carper said more than a dozen churches - “just about every denomination in Coeur d’Alene is represented” - will be preparing lunch, dinner and snacks for workers throughout the week.

She has been planning this since last November.

But when the building materials arrived two weeks ago - eight truckloads of wood chips and equal amounts of lumber, gravel and sand - so did the nerves.

“I’m getting a little tense,” Carper said. “Everything we do depends on everybody else.”

It’s been a unique undertaking from the beginning, said David Kilburg, a member of the local Kiwanis Club, which donated the initial $30,000 for the project.

The playground will cost about $115,000 - and 200 personalized pickets for a wooden fence still are for sale to help finance the project.

The architect - Leathers and Associates Inc. of Ithaca, N.Y. - has erected similar structures all over the United States and requires that they be built with help from community volunteers.

About 500 children from local elementary schools helped decide what they want in the playground.

Children in Coeur d’Alene went wild over a fire pole, balance beams and swings and even a one-of-a-kind “elephant tot slide” where the little ones shoot out the trunk.

Come tonight, it’s the adults’ turn to get involved.

“You truly do not want to miss out on this project,” Kilburg said, explaining that even folks who haven’t signed up to work can show up unannounced with a hammer.

And that casserole.

Nobody will be turned away from what he called an “old-fashioned barn-building experience.”

“If everybody shows up,” Kilburg said, “then everything will be done on time.”

Doug Eastwood, city parks director, was at the site Monday morning, discussing strategy for the weeklong event with his crew.

Some will arrive at 6:30 a.m. to usher people in at the gate. Others will be keeping unwanted vehicles off the lawn. Even after their regular shifts end for the day, Eastwood said, many members of his staff will hang around as volunteers.

It’s going to be a little crazy, Eastwood admitted, but it’ll be worth it.

“It brings one of the nicest playgrounds in the region,” Eastwood said. “I went to see one of these playgrounds in Sandy, Ore., and it makes you feel like a kid again. You want to get up, run, slide down the slides and play.”

Eastwood scans the piles and piles of wood chips, sand, gravel and lumber that will be transformed into a child’s dream by Sunday night.

He knows having something as nice as this doesn’t come without a price.

“My biggest fear is I’m going to find all of my employees playing down here during work hours,” Eastwood said, laughing.

, DataTimes