Members of the Childersburg Kiwanis Club and some additional volunteers from the area donated their Saturday morning and afternoon to building a playground.
The brightly colored playground equipment is located behind the Childersburg Water Works, Sewer and Gas Board building and is easily visible to people traveling through downtown on Alabama 76.
Childersburg Kiwanis Club secretary/treasurer Judith Lavender said, “There’s not a playground in town and our whole thing is what’s on the back of our shirts (Changing the World One Child, One Community at a Time). That’s what we’re all about. We felt like we could do something to give a kid a place to play.”
This was not a project that was put together at the drop of a hat.
“We’ve been working on this for about maybe 15 or 16 months. Nippon Oil gave us $20,000 to start us off. They were our real seed money,” Lavender said. “Wal-Mart made a donation, and a lot of smaller businesses around town have donated. (Childersburg High School) Key Club has raised a little bit over $2,000 with their funds.”
Kiwanis member Traci Manuel also added that food for the volunteers’ lunches were provided by Wal-Mart in Sylacauga, Winn-Dixie in Childersburg and Piggly Wiggly in Childersburg.
Lavender said the land where the playground is being built belongs to the city, and the city has pledged to maintain it when it is finished.
The volunteers arrived and started working before 7 a.m. and continued to work well into the afternoon. “We intend to have it where they can play on it (Sunday),” Lavender said.
Saturday’s work marked only the first phase of the playground project. Lavender said there are two more phases to be built on land adjoining the current location and possibly a walking track will be added around the whole thing.
She hopes an Oct. 29 fundraising golf tournament at Farmlinks would raise enough money for the club to go on with phase two.
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