Parents help Elmhurst's Emerson Elementary build new playground

ELMHURST – Emerson Elementary hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony Nov. 9 to inaugurate a playground that was built by parents in one weekend.

The new playground was donated by the Emerson PTA and the school community because students didn’t have one to use during recess.

Amanda Tolman, a parent of an Emerson student, led a campaign to build the new playground.

To pay for the project, the PTA donated $10,000 and the school community raised another $12,000.

Emerson Elementary had theme days such as Hat Day, Gum Day and Choose the Color Day to raise the money needed to fund the playground.

Each classroom had a jar that collected the donations that students gave to participate in the special days.

Additionally, classrooms competed to raise the most money for the opportunity to be the first class to play in the playground.

Rebecca Weglarz’s class won and was invited to cut the ribbon at the Nov. 9 ceremony.

Parents volunteered their time and skills Nov. 7 and 8 to build the park.

“We had over 40 volunteers who helped to put our playground together,” Emerson Elementary Principal Beth Gregor wrote in a statement on the school’s website. “They thought they were signing up for a two-hour volunteer work day and most put in many more hours than that.”

The benches for the park were donated by the Emerson Student Council. One of them is called the “buddy bench” and is meant to be used to make friends.

Anyone who wants to play or talk to somebody can sit on the bench so others know that they want a friend.