Annette Hamilton of Bristol, Tenn., smiled and pointed at her daughter, Katerina, 10, when asked why they were spending a Friday morning in Anderson Park, pitching in to help build a playground.
“Well, I want her to be one of the kids who enjoy playing in this playground for years to come,” Hamilton said as Katerina shyly smiled. “But I also want my daughter to be able to say she was a part of history in Bristol.”
Making history and making a fun place for kids drew the Hamiltons and more than 200 other volunteers into Anderson Park to build a 3,000-square-foot playground in some six hours. During that period, volunteers installed swings, slides, climbing areas, tunnels, handicapped-access apparatus and other equipment – using hundreds of tools, tens of thousands of screws, nails and fixtures, two semi-trailers full of mulch, thousands of pounds of concrete (all mixed by hand) and an immeasurable amount of sweat, laughter, teamwork and goodwill.
“The kids of Bristol will be healthier and happier because of this day,” said Chris Ayers, chief executive officer of the Bristol Family YMCA. “This is a huge step in the right direction for promoting healthy lives for our kids.
The Bristol Family Y was among a huge network of area and national organizations, city departments and businesses who worked together to create the new Anderson Park playground, which will be officially opened for use Monday afternoon.
Irwin Tools, which is promoting tonight’s Irwin Tools Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway, supplied more than $100,000 of equipment to build the Anderson playground. The company also supplied numerous staffers to help build the site – as did the United Way of Bristol Tn.-Va., the Bristol Parks and Recreation Department, Bristol Motor Speedway, the Home Depot (which brought in volunteers from Virginia, Tennessee and North Carolina) and KaBoom! Inc., a national nonprofit group that promotes active lifestyles for children by helping communities build play areas where they previously didn’t exist.
“What we’re looking to leave behind is a dream playground that kids will use and be inspired by for years,” said Erica Liberman, associate director for KaBoom!, based in Washington, D.C.
In addition to building the multi-colored playground in Anderson Park, volunteers put up a four-square painting, two deck benches, one chalkboard, four recycling bins, two trash containers, nine checkerboard game tops, eight “clean-up” stations, three tree benches, three planters and six picnic tables – while also refurbishing the park’s existing picnic tables.
“It’s awesome,” Terry Napier, Bristol’s parks and recreation director, said after the playground project was completed Friday afternoon. “It’s really inspirational to see the end result of so much teamwork.”
Chris Tesmer, Irwin Tools vice president for sales, agreed with Napier – and said Friday’s successful effort will likely lead to another area playground in the future. “We’re already talking about how we can do this again,” said Tesmer, who suggested the next playground will be located in Bristol, Va.
“We couldn’t be happier with how the Anderson Park project went, and we’re very encouraged about doing another.”
rbrown@bristolnews.com | (276) 645-2512
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