Saturday 26 April 2008

changing the playground



My son's school playground doesn't have a slide. Swings, yes, several different climby things, yes, monkey bars and soccer nets and woods to run in but no slide.
It was either deemed unsafe (too tall!) or taken out because of its age (or both, I suppose) and now the Parents Group has been raising money for new playground equipment.

Our big fundraiser today? A bottle drive. Posters went up all over town and notices were put in the paper. People who don't save their bottles or don't drink pop gave toonies and loonies. (Two dollar and one dollar coins, respectively!) Very few people around here wouldn't give something towards the school - supporting the kids, supporting our town.

We expected a good haul.
What we got was monstrous.And wonderful.

About an hour into it, we'd sent a load to the depot already and were quickly running out of room on the trailer we'd been filling with bags of sorted, counted 5-cent cans and bottles.

We ended up filling a dump truck. A dump truck, along with several pickup loads of glass bottles.

The total? From this little town?

Over a thousand dollars.

Margaret Mead was a wise old girl.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's well known that Bluenosers like their beer and rum, so a bottle drive makes good sense.
I bet you were wicked tired.
Congratulations!

Stomper Girl said...

I love that quote. Yay for the new slide.

Unknown said...

LOL at the toonies and loonies, glad you explained it :)
Well done, that's a fabulous success!

Anonymous said...

That is SO great! Will it be enough to get the slides?

Our PTO has raised enough money in the past year to put a climbing wall in the gym and to buy a very expensive kiln for the art teacher. Now we're setting our sights on putting a track around our playing field. I figure we'll have the money by Christmas, because this is one very motivated group of parents.

Woman in a Window said...

That is so cool and inspiring. I should get up off my arse and do something for this town. Much in need, indeed. And I know it can be mobilized with the right kick in the pants. A size 9 perhaps...

Jess said...

No, it won't be enough to get the slide by just the bottle drive, but we have several groups helping and we'll do whatever we have to to get the rest of it...we've priced out a slide and a wicked nice dragon shaped climbing wall thingy for about five grand and change...we're planning on installing it this summer.

motherbumper said...

THAT RAWWWWWWWKS (and no surprize b/c Maritimers are damn generous, even those who come by it by marriage ;).

Anonymous said...

Excellent haul, girlfriend! I'm happy it was worth the beer dripping down into your elbows!

kimmyk said...

wow!
that's amazing!
congrats!

tut-tut said...

Amazing! Toonies and loonies; new to me.

Caro said...

That's wonderful. You'll have a playground soon at that rate.

blackbird said...

Hooray!

barbra said...

yay! Sounds like a great day!

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