By Yadira Betances
ybetances@eagletribune.com
—
LAWRENCE — Rome might not have been built in one day, but the playground at the Arlington School was.
Yesterday, more than 300 volunteers helped assemble slides, swings and monkey bars, in red and purple, build flower boxes, benches and paint a mural at the school located at 150 Arlington St.
"I feel awesome that seven months ago we were looking to build a playground for our kids, and here we are having it done," said Marlene Duerr, assistant principal at Arlington Elementary.
The playground's design is based on drawings by Arlington School students and neighborhood children who participated in a Design Day event in April. An added feature is an imagination playground with different shapes and colors for younger children.
The New Balance Foundation provided the majority of the funding for the playground in partnership with Lawrence public schools, the City of Lawrence, Groundwork Lawrence and The Community Group. KaBOOM contacted the above organizations to see if they were interested in building a playground.
The play area includes an Imagination Playground featuring geometric shapes of all sizes and colors and natural elements such as sand and water for unstructured free play.
The play area is further enhanced by a mural showing children enjoying equipment similar to that at Arlington.
Heather Langlois, art teacher at Arlington Elementary School came up with the design for the mural with the help of students and fellow teachers.
"We not only want to beautify the inside of the school, but carry out that when they are playing here after school and on weekends," Langlois said.
"When kids are involved in something, they respect it even more," she said.
To prepare for the work day, volunteers from YouthBuild spent two days digging up the concrete on the schoolyard then making holes to place the footing for the playground equipment.
Volunteers came from Groundwork Lawrence, The Community Group, Lawrence Community Works, City of Lawrence, Lawrence Public Schools, organizers from KaBOOM!, residents and 125 New Balance employees from Lawrence and Brighton.
New Balance president and chief executive officer Rob DeMartini said volunteers came from every department including sales, customer service, management, engineering and design.
"We've been part of Lawrence for the past 30 years and we want to make sure we contribute to the community which has given us so much," DeMartini said.
Also helping build the playground were Arlington School alumni including Stephanie Quezada, Class of 2006, Michael Caban, Class of 1995 and friends Tiffany Colon, Heslin Santana and Shalimar Quiles, all 2002 graduates.
"This is an opportunity to come back and give back to the school who helped us become who we are today," Quiles, who works helping turn around under performing schools.
Colon graduated from merrimack College and santana is a junior at Wheelock College.
Caban, who is part of YouthBuild, said the playground and other efforts in the area will help revitalize the Arlington neighborhood where he has lived for the past 19 years.
"In 1995, gangs start to come in and we couldn't even go out and play. It's good to see the neighborhood making a comeback," Caban said.
Throughout the day, students from each grade saw the progress of the construction first from the wroth iron gates then closer as they walked through the yard on their way back to the classrooms.
Students were pleased with what they saw.
"It's nice how people came together to build the program so kids can enjoy ourselves," said Alemsy Acevedo, seventh grader at Arlington school.
The playground is part of an effort to create a "Promise Neighborhood" in the Arlington area to break the cycle of poverty by building a continuum of academic, family and community support for children with the help of nonprofit and government agencies.
"This is an amazing project. It has changed people's way of thinking," said Sharon Thompson, deputy executive director of Community Day Care, part of The Community Group.
