messy build in Tulsa

Here is what KaBOOM!'s National Director of Project Management wrote about my build last week... Of course she only said the good stuff.
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Sent: Friday, November 12, 2004 2:57 PM
Subject: Tulsa Build

The first KaBOOM! playground in Tulsa, OK build was completed yesterday with the incredible Hope leading the way! Congratulations Hope!

At about 6 a.m. Hope, Isaac and I arrived on site at the YMCA Thornton Family Branch in Tulsa. The torrential rains from the day and night before had turned the playground site into a swimming pool. Not only were the holes filled with water, but literally, the entire site was flooded. Fortunately the tornado's (yes, tornado's in Nov) had touched down in areas nearby but not at this site. With the use of sump pumps and a bucket brigade, the site was changed from a pool into a mudpit by kick-off.

Hope kicked off the day at 8:30 a.m. asking the 140 volunteers to consider the people who have fought for our freedom in the past and who were currently fighting and to please honor them with a moment of silence in honor of Veteran's Day (a very nice touch!). Following the solemn moment we got to business with the expectations for the day and the why's behind our being there. The kick off was wrapped up with a rowdy The Home Depot cheer! And we were off and working in the 44 degree weather!

The day progressed with mitten-handed volunteers working hard and enthusiastically. In addition to the playground, volunteers installed a pathway from the parking lot to the playground, cleaned and weeded the riverbed that ran along the site, built a playhouse and constructed six picnic tables.

The ribs and beans from Texas Roadhouse helped to warm us up at lunchtime. And if that didn't work, the pre-schoolers songs melted the chill away. Kurt Franklin, District Manager did an incredible job of rallying the 120 THD volunteers and 25 community volunteers back to work after warming up at lunch by encouraging us to "finish the day as strong as we started it". By 2:45 the playground was finished and the board cutting underway! The matrix, rock blocks, spiral slide, tire swing, triple shoot out and regular swings were all beautifully in place and stood taunting the kids out to play. A group of students from a neighboring elementary school joined us for the board cutting sharing their excitement for the addition of the unfenced structure as it will be open to the public and for use by the approximate 5000 children aged 5-12 who live in the area or who belong to the Y.

Special PM highlight: Hope did a great job trouble shooting the tough weather conditions and in keeping folks motivated. She also impressively kept pushing the cp who needed refocused on THD sponsorship of the playground-- example: as soon as Hope noticed the signs on the prep day that were equal in size acknowledging THD along with all the businesses who supported the project, Hope called THD and asked them to bring banners out so two huge THD banners ended up flanking the wall of appreciation to all of the supporters.

VIPs:
Susan Plank, CEO of the YMCA of Greater Tulsa
Laura Haley Butler, ED of the YMCA
John Grace, YMCA Metropolitan Board of Directors
Stacy Bruce, Director of the Thornton Family YMCA
Phil Tipton, Chief Operating Officer of YMCA
Representative of the Mayor's office - Clay Bird
Kurt Franklin, District Manager THD
Seven store managers from the THD
Ola Kusyk, Division Manager for Community Affairs, THD

Media:
ABC
FOX
NBC
Tulsa World newspaper
Tulsa Kids magazine
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Overall it was a success, but I definitely didn't quite have all my shit together... Let's just say a learn a WHOLE lot on this project... as far as what not to do or what to do better during the planning process.