On top of the world at St. Luke’s
By Christie L. Chicoine
CS&T Staff Writer
GLENSIDE — If second-grader Tara Regan can’t see one of her friends on the new playground at St. Luke the Evangelist School, she climbs to the top of the big slide.
“It’s so high, you can see everyone,” Regan said. “If it’s really sunny, I put my hands above my eyes and look. And then, when I want to get down, I just go down the slide.”
A happy day for the whole school happened in mid-May, when the pastor, Msgr. J. Michael Flood, cut the ribbon to open the $85,000 playground officially.
St. Joseph Sister William Adele, the school principal, reports that the pastor was the first one down the big slide.
“It’s really fun to play on it,” said Tara Lorenz, a fifth-grader.
She likes the big slide and the rock climb the best.
Regan also has fun on the monkey bars, which, she admits, “are really challenging.”
The monkey bars, rock climb and big slide are also favorites of fourth-grader Kevin Woehrle.
When Woehrle and his friends race one another on the monkey bars, it is Woehrle who usually wins, he says. Coincidentally, the same thing happens when they race on the climbing wall, he said.
Woehrle has also mastered a strategy for getting maximum speed on the big slide: “I run up the stairs and I don’t stop.”
The playground has four main pieces: a castle rock-climbing wall, an overhead climber, five slides and a bridge, and a stand-alone slide.
It is open during school hours for the schoolchildren and remains open until dusk during the weekdays and on weekends for parishioners and their families, including children enrolled in the PREP (parish religious education program.) All children must be supervised by an adult.
A picnic table and benches provide rest for the weary after play.
The playground, which has been paid for in full, also has a pressure-treated wood picket fence around the perimeter featuring the names of the project’s major sponsors.
“I think it’s really great that everybody worked together so hard to make it happen,” Lorenz said.
And work hard they did. Although the playground was professionally installed, hundreds of volunteers both from the parish and school communities helped during the 18-month project. Construction began in January.
“Everyone put their time into making it,” Woehrle said.
The children have patiently waited for a nice, safe place to play, said Sister William Adele. Previously, the youngsters played on an asphalt parking lot. Now the children can cushion their rough landings on a surface made of mulch and wood chips.
A parishioner who owns a fence company offered materials at cost and donated the labor to install the rails and posts. Parishioners volunteered to install the pickets.
A group of about 30 volunteers also helped to move a massive amount of mulch — it filled two-and-a-half 18-wheelers — from the parking lot to the playground. That work filled an entire day.
Another parishioner, who owns a landscaping company, donated workers’ time and equipment.
One of the parents, a plumber, offered to install a water fountain, which wasn’t in the plans.
To the principal’s amazement, the kindergartners — without prompting — line up to take turns at the fountain, and have done so since opening day. “A kindergartner said to me, ‘That water is so delicious in that water fountain,’” Sister William Adele said.
“A labor of love” is how the principal describes the work that went into the playground.
“It’s been a blessing to our children. It’s been a labor of love by many people,” parents as well as other parishioners, she said.
“The children caught that spirit also,” she said. “They wanted to participate.”
A small group of girls donated $4 to the playground fund. They raised the money from an art sale they held that showcased and sold their own drawings.
The Class of 2007 became an official donor when the students decided to pour money into the playground from their class gift fund.
The school’s Summer Blast raised $14,000 for the playground last year. The annual end-of-the-school year fundraising event — attended by students and their families — includes a variety of games, activities and prizes.
The Home and School Association also gave a substantial donation, Sister William Adele said.
“It’s a wonderful blessing for the parish and the children of the parish,” Msgr. Flood said. “The kids just love it. It makes me feel very happy.”
The playground was built around an existing statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The statue serves as a reminder to the children that “Christ is with them in their play,” the pastor said.
For more information, contact St. Luke the Evangelist School at (215) 884-0843 or visit the parish’s Web site, www.stlukerc.org.
CS&T Staff Writer Christie L. Chicoine may be reached at (215) 587-2468 or cchicoin@adphila.org.
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