Volunteer Work Builds Civic Pride And Playground

The blisters on my palms and my sore shoulders are just about gone now, which is almost disappointing.

The aches linked me to hundreds of people I hardly know and gave us a common bond. We compared stiff necks, weakened wrists and bruised flesh with mutual admiration based on nothing more than the extent of the pain.

The Coeur d’Alene Kiwanis Club’s behemoth playground in City Park brought us together. Somehow, the club convinced nearly 2,000 volunteers to hammer, saw, sand, cart gravel, chase children and on and on for five, 12-hour days.

That’s a mind-boggling achievement. How risky to depend on the good nature of people to build a playground that spans a third of an acre. And how rewarding when it works.

Coeur d’Alene was up to the challenge. People poured into the park in overalls and tool belts, shorts and sandals. Organizers had only one question: skilled or unskilled?

The work site was as non-discriminatory as it gets. We unskilled workers hauled gravel and wood chips, sanded boards, raked, shoveled, etc. Team leaders assigned tasks by name-tag color - black for unskilled, red for skilled - not by gender or age.

A team leader scrounging up a crew to build a ramp tagged me as I trudged by with a wheelbarrow full of wood chips. I pitifully pointed to my black name tag and kept trudging.

“You can swing a hammer, can’t you?” he said.

The little kids mesmerized by the work inside the orange fencing saw Coeur d’Alene at its best. People helped wherever they were needed. Complaints were good-natured. Workers teased, encouraged and protected each other.

Seniors sweated with teenagers. Skilled guided unskilled. Then everyone sat together and ate food prepared and donated by local churches. Is there any better way to confirm new friendships than over a meal?

My aches keep alive for me the unity I felt last weekend. As they fade, my fervent pride in Coeur d’Alene will drop back to its normal simmer.

Until my next visit to the playground.

Music man

Attention, Coeur d’Alene High class of 1993. It’s probably no surprise to any of you that classmate Jim Smart has accomplished wonderful things in the University of Michigan’s music program.

He graduated last week with a bachelor’s degree in music, then took off on an East Coast tour with UM’s talented symphonic band. Jim plays trumpet.

Pennsylvania and Virginia were fun, but Jim felt compelled to call his parents, Dick and Ann Smart, from his New York performance.

“He called from backstage at Carnegie Hall during the second movement of a saxophone concerto,” Ann says. He couldn’t talk long; he was needed for the rest of the concert.

Applause, applause

The Coeur d’Alene Summer Theatre has decided to prove that hard work pays off. It needs volunteers to usher and sell concessions at its four shows in July and August and is offering show tickets in exchange.

Nice offer. The season opens July 10 with “Annie Get Your Gun.” Then the shows keep coming all summer - “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” and “South Pacific.”

With admission costing $20 a show, a little volunteerism may be the ticket. Call 769-7780 for details.

Yard art

Know anyone into topiary? Where are the bushes trimmed in the shape of Mickey Mouse or Marilyn Monroe? Locate North Idaho’s “Bush Gardens” for Cynthia Taggart, “Close to Home,” 608 Northwest Blvd., Suite 200, Coeur d’Alene, ID, 83814; fax to 765-7149; call 765-7128; or e-mail to cynthiat@spokesman.com. , DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo