Eberwhite Elementary School’s wood playground was built by volunteers in 1990 and had stood tall for nearly 30 years, but by fall 2019 the playground had been worn down and was replaced October 2019.

The new playground is made up of composite wood and will stand for much longer than the last playground. The seven day, $600,000 build had the help of many volunteers. Any volunteer with a variety of skills was invited to participate in the build, and were given a nametag and an assignment to work on. 

The students worked on a few different tasks, some assembled the roof of the play structure, others cut and put in posts, as well as building the ramps running through the playground. The already developed skills and knowledge of the students helped speed up the build.

One group of volunteers was the morning and afternoon classes from Ann Arbor Student Building Industry Program. Led by Mark Valchine and Grant Welch the group of thirty students were able to help for one full day of building. 

Although this playground is finished Eberwhite is also hoping to build a new 3rd-5th grade playground in the spring of 2020. The new build will also use a group of volunteers and fundraising is currently being done to make the new playground possible.

It was cool to help out little kids and help out the community, I felt proud of everyone and myself that we could contribute to our community in a positive way. -Savante D

It was a great way for us to use the skills we learned. It was also a great way for us to give back to the community. -Noah W

I use to play on that playground as a kindergartner and now returning as an adult getting the opportunity to help rebuild the same playground for future generations of children was very rewarding and felt like a great way to give back to the playground I grew up on. -Julian A