Continued…..Over the last five days, more than 2,300 community volunteers helped build the 10,000-square-foot playground on city-owned land near Mike Lansing field. For a week, they hauled planks of plastic decking, cut them to fit, rounded the edges, built a castle, painted details, hung swings, poured concrete, built a fence, served food and babysat the youngest.
On Sunday, the toughest judges came to appraise their work.
"The swing goes super high!" shouted Daniel Starnes, 7, pumping his legs like a champion swinger.
"There's enough padding!" he shouted, landing a 180-degree leap from the swing squarely on his bottom.
The playground floor is more than a foot deep in soft woodchips; virtually every edge and corner has been rounded with a router. The climbing wall doesn't go too high. The screws are all counter-sunk; the ramp into the castle meets the sidewalk without a gap.
For the past week, such safety measures have been the focus of volunteers and two professional leaders from Leathers and Associates, the Ithaca, NY, firm that designs the custom-planned, community-built, all-plastic playgrounds.
By Sunday at 4:30 p.m., the paint still wet in spots, there was little for those volunteers to do but stand back, watch and do a little back patting.
"This truly changed you if you worked on it," said Gene Theriault, a member of the playground committee of the Casper Rotary Club.
Casper Rotary Club organized the community project as part of Rotary International's centennial celebration. The club's motto, "Service above self," was in evidence everywhere.
Some folks, like Bill DeGraeve, the project coordinator for the club, have been working on the project since its inception some 8 months ago. Others, including Theriault, have put in 13-hour days on the site for 10 days, ever since supplies started arriving -- "I'd start again tomorrow," Theriault said Sunday.
Rotarian Bill Mortimer found himself behind a Makita table saw for five days straight, cutting plastic composite boards to fit, churning out plastic dust that clogged up saws and eyes alike.
Others just thrilled at a job well done.
"I love community service," said Charley Farley. He spent Friday and Saturday pouring concrete and doing whatever needed doing.
"I had the best time, I got to paint, I got to use a saw," said Jenielle Lambrecht, a CY Junior High School 8th grader and member of the Youth Empower Council, as she put the finishing touches on the tower at the gateway to the playground.
As fun as it is, the maze, the wavy slide, the bouncy bridge, the monkey bars and rings, the alligator balance beam, and the crazy tire swing, Crossroads Adventure Playground is just a little more fun because Casper built it.
"The coolest thing is my best friend's oldest brother helped to build this thing," said seven-year-old Eli Vlastos.
