Seeds sown a year ago bloom thanks to a thousand volunteers

PHOTOS BY JEREMIAH O’HAGAN | STANWOOD/CAMANO NEWS

One year of planning and fundraising, 1,040 volunteers and five days of building brought the Rotary Adventure Playground to fruition. It is possible to turn raw materials, rain, sunshine, five 14-hour days and a bunch of kids’ big ideas into a stellar playground. Promise.

All it takes is 1,040 volunteers, about $200,000 and what Theresa Metzger likes to call, “magic.” The stream of kids tearing through the paper chain “ribbon” at Sunday’s Rotary Adventure Playground grand opening proved that community is not yet an outdated concept. The playground was built in

The playground was built in five days by volunteers from the surrounding area, the culmination of a long road of planning and fundraising.

“It is humbling to see so many people take time away from work, to bring their entire family, to work a three- or four-hour shift,” said Greg Gilday, project coordinator.

(Top) Isaac Johnson lends a hand building. (Above) 3, 2, 1 … Kids prepare to blitz the playground for the first time. Gilday introduced the concept about a year ago, after experiencing a similar playground.

“I thought, this is really cool, why don’t we have something like this,” he said.

Instead of simply leaving the question hanging silently in the air, Gilday rallied a small committee and began fundraising.

The group chose Leathers and Associates, which builds playgrounds the world over, to design the project and oversee construction. Dave Ianuello was the man in charge.

Ianuello said the process began by visiting schools with his design group.

“We ask the kids for ideas — what do they want on a playground? — and if it’s feasible to craft out of the materials we have, we try our best,” he said.

Meanwhile, fundraising continued, and in December, the Stanwood-Camano Rotary Club donated $50,000, earning the title of lead sponsor and nudging the playground to nearly half its fundraising goal.

Many local businesses and individuals also contributed, donating money or sponsoring playground equipment, and fence pickets were sold for $35 apiece, with the purchaser’s name engraved.

In April, ground was broken and last Wednesday, construction began.

Ianuello said Leathers always uses the communitybuilt model, and five days is a standard time frame.

“It’s a tight, compressed, crazy episode,” he said. “We hit it hard and stay on it to sustain momentum.”

The Rotary Adventure Playground went very well, he added. Not every project does.

Jane Poetzl takes the swings for a spin. “There are varying levels of detail in ‘completion,’” Ianuello said. “This playground is very complete.”

“There are touch ups needed here and there,” Gilday said, “but it went great. We couldn’t have asked for better.”

Metzger credits the success to magic.

“For me,” she said, “the biggest thing was the magic. Every time we needed something, it showed up.”

“It continuously amazed me how willing people were to do anything,” Gilday added.

Case in point: the crews needed a crane to place a pyramid roof atop one of the structures.

“One phone call and half an hour later, we had a crane,” Metzger said.

She also noted there were “easily double the number of people expected at each shift.”

Rob Bacon was part of the magic too, although he denies it.

Metzger said they needed someone to stamp a wood grain into the concrete pad beneath the pavilion. For a while, it looked like it might not get done, but then Bacon showed up with his concrete skills.

“It’s not magic, just work,” he said. “No more work than anyone else has been doing.”

“I work construction,” Bacon added, “and I know that before all this could happen, some people have already had a lot of headaches — the people in the yellow shirts.”

They would be the captains, whom Metzger and Gilday both described as phenomenal.

Aside from coordinating things ahead of time, “They took the whole week off work to volunteer,” Metzger said.

She even heard rumors of one company who paid one of its foremen to work on the playground.

Matt Carr, with Javco Remodeling and Restoration, was one of these captains, who worked until 9:30 p.m. several nights.

“It was tiring,” he said, “but the atmosphere was so motivating that it got us through. It was cool to be part of the community coming together.”

Carr said one of the nice features of the playground is that it’s fully enclosed, with only one way in and out — it’s safe.

His wife, Debbie, said several “moms groups” she knows are already planning outings to the playground.

In the end though, Metzger might be onto something with her magic — the golden evening light, creaking swings and tumbling laughter certainly hinted at it.

“This isn’t anything you can plan,” she said. “At best, it’s 50 percent planning. The other 50 percent is organic.”

Staff Reporter Jeremiah O’Hagan: 629-8066 ext. 125 or ohagan@scnews. com.