BY DARRELL HALEN

As rain poured down on him, Eric Giniewicz tightened fasteners to attach a set of red bars to a blue deck.

His day was long and the weather was miserable, but the hard work was worth it, as he helped build a new tot playground that his two young children and other Pelham youngsters will enjoy.

From early in the morning until late into the night on Saturday, June 9, several volunteers helped assemble the red, white and blue play area.

It is located at Lyons Park, next to Town Hall, and is designed for children age 2 to 5 to enjoy.

The manpower Eric and other volunteers donated that day was critical to getting the project done.

“I’d still be out there by myself if I didn’t have them,” said Darren McCarthy, the town’s recreation director, three days later.

To get the playground ready, workers dug holes, cut wood, assembled equipment, put in concrete footings and much more.

Two laborers from CMJ Construction in Bangor, Maine, were there, but much of the work was done by local men – many of them fathers – who gave of their time while getting soaked in the rain.

It was an opportunity for the men to build a place they know their children and those of their friends will enjoy. But it was also a time to “hang out with the guys and play with tools,” McCarthy said.

“They were super helpers.”

Richard Moore, a former member of the town’s Parks and Recreation Advisory Board, and who has helped McCarthy on several projects, donated a few hours of his time.

“I felt I wanted to help him and the park,” Moore said.

Ian Dube, 8, was also there to help. As he stood near several pieces of equipment wrapped in plastic, McCarthy gave him a task.

“Ian, want a job?” he asked him. “Want to take off all the plastic off this stuff and put it in the trash?”

The $30,000 project was paid for with a $10,000 fighting obesity grant from Game Time, the playground equipment manufacturer; $10,000 from Hillsborough County; and $10,000 from the town’s recreation budget that primarily covered the cost of surfacing and fencing.

“The taxpayers only had to pay a third of it,” McCarthy said.

McCarthy put out the word that he was looking for help through newspapers and on the Internet at the Pelham Message Board. 

Ben Harrison, who coaches soccer, was one of the residents who saw McCarthy’s request and came down to help.

“Anytime I ask for volunteers, I can’t get rid of him,” McCarthy joked.

Others who donated their time were Bill Sullivan, Tony Chianca and Roger Joncas.

Giniewicz’s wife, Julie, serves as the leader of the recreation department’s Tot Playgroup.

The new playground that their 3-year-old son, Ethan, and 4-year-old daughter, Sarah, will enjoy is not far from where the E.G. Sherburne School playground – where Eric and Julie played as students – once stood.

The tot playground has already opened and is “kid tested and mother approved,” McCarthy said.

McCarthy has scheduled a grand opening for 8 a.m., Sunday, June 17.        

The occasion will coincide with the final session of Pelham Tot Soccer and as many as 120 3- and 4-year-olds and their families are expected, he said.