Pennies for a playground

Hooksett Editor — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 19:26:00 GMT

BY TOBY HENRY

Kindergarten student Allyson Turner said she had a new idea in mind when she recently looked at a bottle full of pennies that her parents were saving up for her college.

The 5-year-old Henry Moore Elementary School student said her school is in need of a playground, and she wanted to contribute the coins toward the fund-raising effort that has so far raised about $8,000.

“I don’t know how long, but we’ve been saving (coins) for a long time,” she said, adding that her dad, Ron Turner, has been the one filling up the large novelty Coca-Cola bottle. “My dad was saying I would probably be in college by the time it was filled up.”

Allyson brought her bottle of coins, filled about halfway up, to donate it to the school. With some help, Assistant Principal Jim Lewis added the pennies and other coins to the large water cooler bottle of coins and bills that have been accumulating over the past several months.

Lewis said Allyson’s donation is a heartfelt gift that will help the school in reaching its goal. School officials recently commissioned a new design for their playground, and Lewis said the final price tag will be in the $70,000 range.

“So far things are going well, and even though it’s a lot of money, we have no shortage of ideas (for fundraising),” he said.

In addition to coins from Allyson and other students, Lewis said the school sponsored spaghetti dinners, a road race and other means of fundraising. Lewis said that when school officials decided they need to replace the existing playground, they wanted to fund the venture without coming to the taxpayers.

“We’d like to have it done ASAP,” he said. “The reality is we’ll do it when we can.”

Students say that they too recognize that the playground money is a significant amount. But Emma McKenna, 10, Pierce Gilman, 12, and Cameron Spezzaferri, 10, said the fundraising effort will be worth it.

All three children gave low marks to the existing playground, which they said consists of about eight swings and a slide. Pierce said that even his peers, the older students, look at the conceptual photo of the new $70,000 playground with anticipation. “I look at it and I just hope we get it,” he said.

“The playground we have right now is really old, and it would make life at school a lot funner if we had a new one,” said Emma.

Cameron said that, for the most part, the giant boulders near the playground typically gather larger numbers of students than the actual playground itself. “Because our playground is really old, I think it will eventually either fall down or be taken down,” he said.

For more information on fundraising, contact the school at 483-2251.

Candia News : Henry Moore Elementary School

Pennies for a playground