Archive: Around Town

mp3design2_900.jpgParents and children gathered at Lansing Middle School last week for the kick-off 'community celebration' of the Myers Park Playground Project (MP3).  The party featured Crossroads the Clown, the Lansing Varsity Cheerleaders, playground drawings by Lansing school children, and food.  But the centerpiece was the new playground design, which organizers hope to make a reality this June.

"It's going to cost $130,000," said Lansing Community Council President Ed LaVigne.  "Of that we have already raised $18,000 and we haven't even kicked this thing off yet!"


Marc Leathers presented a powerpoint showing other community playground projects and explaining how this one will work.  Leathers & Associates is a Lansing-based company that specializes in community playground builds, where the whole community gets involved in a myriad or ways.  He said that less than 10% of the playground is pre-fabricated pieces, and most of that 10% is swings and slides.  The rest is built from scratch, largely using safe recycled plastic.

The rest is imagined by Leathers in response to ideas from the community.  In that vein the walls of the Middle School cafeteria were papered with drawings by Lansing children imagining their playground.  The tot area will be fenced in, while another large area is intended for bigger kids.  One example of an idea generated by kids is the 'Smile House' that is planned for the small children's section of the playground. 

"This is one of my favorites," Leathers said.  "One of the kids wrote 'smile house.'  I don't know what it is, exactly, but it's going to be cool, I can promise that!"


There are three ways to donate money to the project, and many other ways to volunteer and participate.  Donors are recognized at different levels of giving, the highest being the $5,000 platinum level.  More modestly, people can buy a picket for $35 that will be part of a fence integral to the design.  Donors names will be painted on the pickets.  An unusual way to donate is to outright buy a playground component.  So far three of the more than 30 available components have been purchased, including the Pirate Hideout Maze, Sail Boat, and Power Boat.  Components range from $250 benches to a $4,000 circular slide.  Donors can contribute on line on the myersparkplayground.com Web site or by writing a check.

But money is only part of the equation.  Leathers said there are many ways to volunteer, from making cookies to actually building the playground.  Kids and adults will be engaged during the five day 'community build' that will see a state of the art playground put together from start to finish.  Leathers says that people tend to commit to one or another component, coming back throughout the build days to see it through to completion.


"When we say 'community build' there are opportunities for everybody," Leathers told the crowd.  "And I mean everybody, and we need your help.  There are lots of ways to get involved.  You can volunteer to build.  You can join a committee for fund raising, tools, volunteers, food, child care, PR."

LaVigne thanked Town Supervisor Scott Pinney who made a private gift of $5,000, as did the Lansing Tops Market, which raised the money in a 'Bucks for Bricks' campaign in October.  He also thanked Moore Tree Farm, MPL, and Land Maintenance.  He said that the celebration was only the first of many events being planned between now and June.

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