Supporters gear up to replace burned playground in Richmond
With ideas big and small, community supporters began lining up yesterday to find the money to rebuild the playground at George Mason Elementary School in Richmond.
The $70,000 piece of equipment was damaged in a fire early Wednesday morning, and Richmond fire officials investigating the case suspect the blaze was set intentionally.
"It's just senseless," said David Ballard, the one-time School Board chairman who now leads the Richmond Public Schools Education Foundation.
He said the foundation set aside $2,000 to establish a fund to replace the equipment and is soliciting money from other sources.
"It's really a placeholder, something to set up a budget line," he said. He said he thinks foundation directors and supporters will "dip into their own pockets" to increase the pot.
"This is exactly what part of our mission is," he said.
On a smaller scale, community activist Ron Melancon is pushing for schoolchildren in the city and in surrounding counties to collect pocket change. He said he's looking for corporate donors to match whatever the children can collect.
"It shouldn't have to take a year to rebuild this," he said. "Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could get it done in five days?"
He said his idea was inspired by a collection at his son's Henrico County elementary school last winter, when students brought in as much as 99 cents a day for five days, then pooled their money to buy blankets for people who needed them.
"There's no physical reason why this can't happen," he said. "Why can't we, on Monday morning, say, 'We have five days to do this?'"
Richmond schools spokeswoman Felicia Cosby said she had seen Melancon's proposal but hadn't yet discussed it with administrators. For now, she said, the focus is on getting as much community support as possible for the Church Hill school's field day Tuesday.
Cosby said the goal is to have the charred playground removed by field day, but she wasn't sure whether it could be done that fast.
Even with money in hand, it could take months to replace the equipment, said the school system's plant services manager. Playgrounds of that sort typically are purchased as a package that comes installed, and the summer is the busiest time of the year for installation.
Contact Zachary Reid at (804) 775-8179 or
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Reader Reactions
Maybe I’m off here. But if this is a school playground, previously purchased by the school board, don’t they have insurance? If a school burns down, will you expect the community to rebuild that? Yes it can be done, but you should not expect childrent to collect change to do so.
True, this playground is needed more than ever right now, with summer coming in fast and kids needing a place to play. I also feel that supporters should stick to their mission of raising the money to replace this equipment, themselves. No taxpayer bailout! We have already shown our children fiscal irresponsibility by allowing the federal bailouts. If kids raised the money themselves, they would be more protective of this equipment and I am sure, they would take care of it better. And, the next time some jerk sets fire to it, I guarantee that the kids underground would be able to identify the culprit.
The community needs to provide the means to enforce family responsibility of those who burned the equipment before replacing the equipment. If the same people who burned the equipment are allowed to go out and do it again to the replacement equipment, they will if nothing changes. Also, every dime of the replacement cost should come from the locality of where the equipment is located so they will have a vested interest in protecting it. Otherwise, again, those who burned it down the first time will just be permitted to do it again without recourse.
Great article!! Can we gather around… as a region… and not let this project get cloudy. The Mission should be clear…. to get this fixed! This is a teachable moment. The children will learn that bad things happen. The children will learn that things can be fixed when we gather together and work together to accomplish a common goal.
I believe that blight attracts blight. To have these children look at this damaged play set for the entire summer is just wrong.
Some are going to summer school if they are making an effort to improve their schooling…. the least we can do is give them some playtime on a functioning play area.
WE CAN DO THIS!
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