Building a Playground

My employer and Kaboom! teamed up to build a playground at Harvey Hall Apartments. Kaboom! are committed to providing a safe play environment for every child in the US within walking distance of their homes. Its good cause and it sounded like fun so I volunteered along with c.150 colleagues, people who lived and worked at the apartment building and Kaboom!’s employees. We came together to do something for the community and despite being really hard work it was fun; I just hadn’t counted on the heat.

It was hot on Saturday! 98 degrees by midday and 40% humidity - I was feeling all of it. My English body wasn’t ready for those conditions I was sweating from start to finish and even with strong sunscreen I felt like I was being slowly broiled. It’s a weird thing, but I am used (in the UK) to air conditioning being an added extra, it’s nice but you don’t need it. In DC in the summer – you need it.

Back to the playground: I arrived at 7.45am, a crazy time to be awake on a Saturday let alone moving and contemplating physical labour. All of us were warmly received by the residents who had set up breakfast and some welcome shade (it was already really warm), they also provided a tasty lunch later in the day and their presence gave us a real sense of who we were helping. We all signed in and were assigned to groups, at this point I wasn’t sure what each group would be doing, I was in the Pumpkin group I was expecting to be assigned to (the much dreaded) mulch duty - I’d seen the mulch pile was a small hill in one corner and it looked like an all day job to get it moved.

As it turned the Pumpkin team was tasked with path building at the back of the playground and with my team mates Pedro (our team leader), Geoff, Ben, Jess and Peter we set to work. After some initial confusion we got a plan together and started to dig out the mud track we were replacing. Now I don’t want to start an argument with anyone about what task was tougher, but I will say that ours was a seriously physical mission. Compacted mud, lumps of concrete and big rocks, barrowing away piles of mud, pulling out roots and transporting bricks made it tough on the arms and back. The work along with the blazing sun meant we all really appreciated the vast quantities of water and ice the organisers had provided and everyone who brought it up to us.

I wandered round the site a few times during the day to see what else was going on, to collect water and take a break (the last thing anyone needed was the British guy collapsing from heat stroke). I was amazed at the energy and good spirits of everyone involved, I’m sure in part due to the blaring upbeat music. From the people happily moving tarps filled with mulch to those putting together the playground equipment, planters and benches, those stood in the sun holding the poles for the slides, swings and other apparatus everyone seemed to be smiling. My hat off also to the people who painted the hot tarmac – not only were you out in the sun all day but you created a stunning picture of the world map.

By the end of the day we had a full playground in place, one I’m jealous I didn’t have as a kid and my team had created a fine path. If I ever need one built for myself I now know a few people more than capable of the job to ask – should that happen though I promise to pick a cooler day. I got home took a shower cracked open a cool Corona and slept through the rest of the afternoon content in a hard day’s work for a good cause.

All my pictures from the event (and the ones I took on Sunday when I went back to see what it looked like after we had finished) can be found here.