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A Playground Sprouts From Grass-Roots Effort

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By LOIS KINDLE The Tampa Tribune

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 7, 2008

RUSKIN - For eight months, Luan Nguyen, Annie Moniz and Jessica Smith worked to raise money to build a playground for the children of Bayou Park Village.

They hosted movie nights, sponsored kids' dances and had garage sales to raise money.

With the $900 they raised, a $2,000 grant from the Ruskin Community Development Foundation and $7,100 from the Bayou Pass Village Homeowners Association, they were able to match a $10,000 grant from the Community Foundation of Greater Sun City Center and another $10,000 from Ruskin-based Florida Home Partnership, a nonprofit, affordable-housing developer.

"When we saw how hard this group was working, we got on board," said Earl Pfeiffer, executive director of the Florida Home Partnership. "It would have been simpler to just write a check for the entire project, but we wanted residents to take ownership of it, just like they did in the construction of their homes.

"This was truly a grass-roots effort," he said. "It's a story that needs to be told."

On May 31, 68 of the 200 families living in the community turned out for the 2008 Bayou Pass Playground Buildup. Along with 12 employees from The Home Depot in Ruskin/Sun City Center and 15 other volunteers from across South Shore, parents and their children picked up hammers and screwdrivers to assemble their playground.

Wearing special T-shirts designed to commemorate the project, adults handled the heavy work such as putting up the equipment, pouring cement and spreading mulch. The youngsters, in pint-sized Home Depot aprons, "worked" with wood, building small projects like piggy banks, football holders and wall racks. Home Depot employee Susan Kintz supervised the activities.

"I think it's wonderful," said Moniz, whose daughter Makaela, 8, participated in the workshop. "It reminds me of when I was a kid."

Pfeiffer said before the buildup, organizers went through multiple books of playgrounds and hosted a "Dream Up," where children in the community drew their dream playground and posted those designs on the community center's walls. Then the organizers took the most popular components of the drawings and included them in the equipment purchased with the $30,000.

"The idea was to give the children a sense of ownership, too," Pfeiffer said.

Originally, homeowner and association board member Jessie Ornelas approached Home Depot about loaning the tools for the buildup.

"Not only did they supply the tools, but they also furnished a team of employees and the workshop for kids," he said.

"One of our core values at Home Depot is giving back to the community," said Santiago Bernardez, district manager, adding the company has a Team Depot, a group of volunteers, in every store to help accomplish that goal.

"I thought the buildup was a great project," he said. "Lots of times, it's just our people doing the work, but in this event, we had a lot of help from the residents and other volunteers."

The playground was assembled on a lot furnished by Florida Home Partnership near the clubhouse. A pedestrian trail meanders through the community, leading to the playground.

"Children can walk safely from anywhere in Bayou Pass to the playground, and that was one of our objectives," Pfeiffer said.

"I have three kids, and they get bored," Smith said. "We just wanted them to have a nice, safe place for them to play that was close by."

Her son Roger, 11, was eager to try out the equipment.

"I think it's going to be awesome," he said, while waiting for the ribbon-cutting ceremony. "I can just walk there where I live."

"All our hard work is about to pay off," said Nguyen, president of the homeowners association. "It's a very rewarding day for me.

"I wanted to see a playground here for my three children and for all the kids in the community. To my knowledge, aside from the dog park, E.G. Simmons Park is the closest place for children to play."

Completed by the early afternoon, the playground was open after the ribbon-cutting, during which all of the children who participated used pairs of rounded scissors to launch their play site.

All that remained for another day was painting the shelter and landscaping.

"The children are the ones we did this for," Ornelas said. "Now they can play safely and have a place to make new friends."

Reporter Lois Kindle can be reached at (813) 731-8138 or lkindle@tampatrib.com.

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