below is the Build Day summary from a couple of weeks ago where I built a playground just north of Anchorage, Alaska! my second and I had the best time up there. we went fishing (& caught some!), driving, hiking, flying (in a little 4-seater over a glacier and landing on a glacier lake), site-seeing, and canoeing. the trip was fantastic, the mountains were spectacular and the culture was so unique! i loved it.
end of build day
Build Day summary, written by me:
Last week in beautiful Wasilla, Alaska, home of the Iditarod Dog Sled Race headquarters, Hope led a fantastic playground build with 135 volunteers from The Home Depot (along with AARP) and Iditarod Elementary School. Whitney rocked the Build as Hope’s Second, and PSI’s Chad Willow jumped into gear as a great installer. Overall, the Build was a relatively normal playground build – the only HUGE difference was the so-called “mulch pile” that came in the form of over 20 pallets of 45 bags of mulch each. Yep, that’s right! It was shipped up from the “lower 48” and unloaded from two containers on Prep Day 1 by a forklift and pallet-jack. Also, on Prep Day, volunteers outlined the US Map. In fact, Whitney’s highlight was finally outlining the Alaska that’s to scale with the rest of the US (have you ever looked at it?? It’s huge!!)!!! Unfortunately, they didn’t get the chance to paint it (or the Hopscotch and 4-square games) on Build Day due to the rain.
The cold and wet Alaskan weather, however, didn’t stop Build Day volunteers from building an awesome outdoor classroom with a “community” bulletin board (modified to host a removable dry-erase board), 2 planter benches, 5 planter boxes, an incredible impromptu butterfly garden, a playhouse, and a great playground. This new playground was particularly bright amidst the surrounding pea gravel, and it added some awesome play value to their existing playspace with a Tire Swing, Monorail, Babble-on and Spiral Slide. To keep the excited youth at bay, volunteers led some well-organized games and craft activities, including stepping stones, paint-by-number murals, and decorating painted fish cut-outs (from Masonite board). At lunch, the mayor of Wasilla herself helped make sure everyone got fed. Everything finished up for an on-time Board-cutting, accompanied by three songs from the youth.
Media:
-ABC
-Anchorage Daily News (paper)
-The Frontiersman
-Q99.7 (provided music and PSAs)
VIPs:
-Mayor Dianna Keller (of Wasilla)
-Bob Doyle, Chief School Administrator
-Stephanie Martin, Community Affairs Manager, The Home Depot
-Homer D. Poe
-John Klapperich, President of Q99.7
Side Projects:
-outdoor classroom
-“community” bulletin board (modified to host a removable dry-erase board)
-2 planter benches
-5 planter boxes
-a butterfly garden
-a playhouse
Highlights:
-Whitney’s highlights include Alaska on the US Map, the “Iditarod Song” performance by the kids, & the first time that the community bulletin board team sunk the board in the holes, only to find out that it was 5’ tall!!
-Hope’s highlight was when, at the closing, the mayor made a point to say that The Home Depot’s motto is “Improve Everything we touch,” and if everyone lived by this motto, the world would be a better place.
