Mr. Sandman, Send Me a Dream

Rebuilding the Toddler Playground 2009

Several years ago the teachers who work with our littlest preschoolers had a dream. They longed to expand the “floor space” of the narrow toddler playground that is behind the Knox Building on the NE campus so that these emerging three year olds could have more space to learn the fine art of pedaling.  But a big part of our playground was a large, deep, concrete sandbox, apparently converted from a fire pit used by St. Andrew’s youth “back in the day” when Knox was our youth building.  

The request to modify/shrink “the pit” was made repeatedly, but always with the response that it was just too big of a project.  This past May, Keith Franklin, who serves as the preschool rep to the Physical Resources committee, agreed to take on the title of Project Manager to see if we could make this dream a reality, working throughout the project and donating company resources.  The Preschool/Kindergarten Board agreed that the project could be paid for with money from the school’s designated account, which is funded primarily with monies received through local grocery store programs. Jan Olafson quickly got on the email train to round up volunteers. We were faced with the time challenge of having to accomplish the project between the completion of VBS and the onset of Preschool – one short, hot month – JULY.   

The project has been accomplished over the course of 3 very long, warm weekends and many hands have contributed to the cause. Jackhammers (including 2 heavy duty pneumatic ones!) were used for 3 days, manned mostly by some preschool teachers’ husbands/dads (Mike Lettera and Craig Haskins), who have great experience with these hefty 90 lb. tools. Keith Franklin, Steve Olafson, Jacob Thomalen and Ernie Oertle (neighbor to the Olafsons) also all took a turn on the hammers, digging out the ~7 tons of concrete involved (thanks to Ron Cornett and Craig Beach for all the wheel barrow work to get it to the roll off!).  Labor intensive, for sure. And then began the process of laying pavers to cover all the exposed ground that would not be taken up with the new, much smaller, purchased sand box. Two long days later, the pavers were set, laid, filled, and gorgeous, thanks mostly to the skill and tools of another friend of the Olafsons, Frank Wicks, along with Lee Harbers, John Ritchie, and Craig Hansen.  Jan Olafson was there for several of the work days, pitching concrete right along side the guys. 

Children will be returning to our campus beginning August 1. They will find a brand new smaller sandbox and much more bike riding space, thanks to the blood, sweat, and hopefully no tears of many generous, hardworking folks. Director Jan Olafson particularly appreciates a “hands-on husband” who supports her work in so many ways, including many hours of hard work and the use of his company pick up. J