Schools

School Staff, Parents Fundraising for New Playground

Solero Cafe is hosting Friday event to help raise money for Wyandotte's Jefferson Elementary School.

As principal of Wyandotte’s , Carol Makuch said raising at least $30,000 to fund a new playground has become an impassioned, personal goal of hers.

“We need a new playground bad,” she said.  “I look out there, see what we have and think our kids deserve better. … We have good kids and they deserve a playground worth having.”

When Taft Elementary School closed in 2010 and many of those students were added at Jefferson, Makuch said, their old playground equipment didn’t come with them.

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“We have 500 kids and five swings,” she said. “When we go out for lunch, we have 150 to 180 kids out there at once and they have five swings. How can that be?”

The Playscape that is there is beat up and there’s no slide for older children, Makuch said.

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“There’s a lot that needs to be done and that we could do if we had the money,” she said.

Hoping to make that happen, she’s decided to earmark money from school fundraisers for the next two years strictly for a new playground.

A cookie dough sale at the beginning of this school year netted $10,000, Makuch said. A few, smaller events since then have bumped the fund up to nearly $14,000.

“It’s $150 here and $500 there,” she said. “It takes time. That’s OK. We’ll eventually get there.”

Her goal is to have at least $30,000 by the end of the 2012-13 school year.

“Once we get there, we’ll sit down and look at exactly what we want to buy,” Makuch said. “We might decide we want something that needs another $15,000, so we’ll work to raise that $15,000."

Bernie Bowers, the school district’s operations supervisor, said he’s hopeful the district can secure a grant to help pay for part of the project.

“I’ve heard from some local people who want to donate money to make this happen,” he said. “I’m patiently waiting.”

Bowers said the playground equipment at Jefferson is about 15 to 20 years old.

“Things have gotten roughed up over the years,” he said. “We’ve had to remove some things over the years for safety reasons.”

While there are a number of options when it comes to a new playground, Makuch said, she envisions a huge Playscape and additional swings.

To help reach that goal, a group of parents have planned a fundraiser at on Friday.

From 6 to 10 p.m., parents and school staffers will be guest servers, with all tips and 20 percent of food sales going toward the new playground.


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