Playground offers new forms of fun

Hickory High School seniors donated time to help with improvements.
By LAURE CIOFFI
VINDICATOR PENNSYLVANIA BUREAU
HERMITAGE, Pa. -- Logan Ziros has no trouble maneuvering around the new play equipment at the Children's Center of Mercer County.
"I'm monkey boy," proclaims the 4-year-old as he makes his way down the spiral monkey bars on the large piece that looks like a bulldozer.
The old equipment didn't suit Logan, who has difficulty walking because of cerebral palsy, but on Tuesday his teachers saw the new equipment was no problem.
The center unveiled the playground to the children and the public.
The new equipment is mixed in with the older equipment in a newly fenced in area to the rear of the Children's Center building in North Hermitage Road.
"It's an exciting day for us," said Carol Rich, executive director of the center.
The center serves children with developmental, physical and emotional problems, and it serves as a preschool and child-care center for able-bodied children. The agency serves newborn babies to 5-year-olds, but only ages 3 to 5 go to the center.
Rich said the center's programs encourage children with challenges and able-bodied children to interact, and it will be no different on the playground.
"Right now you can't tell who is able-bodied and who is handicapped," Rich said as she watched the children play on the new equipment.
Rich believes it is the only playground accessible to children with disabilities in the county.
Contributors
A $20,000 grant from the James McCandless Charitable Trust through the PNC Advisors Charitable Trust Committee helped pay for the new equipment, along with $3,500 from the center's annual golf scramble.
Members of the Hickory High School senior class donated time to put the playground together.
The students spent the past few weeks putting together the privacy fence and spreading the recycled rubber mulch on the ground.
"It will be nice to be able to drive past and say 'I did this,'" said Suzanne Nastock, Hickory senior.
Maria Shah, another senior, said the work will go toward the required 20 hours of community service needed to graduate. But the work was worth more than filling a school requirement, she said.
"It feels really good to see the kids having fun and know we did it. We made it happen," she said.
Jessie Hull, president of the center's board of directors, said they will continue to raise money to pay for more rubber mulch to be placed on the playground. She said the bags cost about $750 each. They hope to make the mulch 6 inches deep.
In addition to climbing and sliding, the new equipment allows the children to play tick-tack-toe, basketball and work on dexterity. The equipment also has wider openings that are accessible to children in wheelchairs.
"The main job of this playground is to get kids to play together. The idea of play is to get children to interact with each other, able-bodied or handicapped," Rich said.
cioffi@vindy.com