Marshfield group works to build new
playgroundKids at Play group gets advice
from parents who spearheaded Mazes project |
New Marshfield
playground will be built in Library Plaza
Exact location is amoung decisions
still to be made
________________________________________
By Sydney
Schwartz
The Patriot Ledger
Posted Nov 25, 2008 @ 06:21 AM
________________________________________
MARSHFIELD
-
Marshfield's new town playground will be built next to Ventress Memorial
Library.
But supporters don't know where in the parking lot the 10,400-square-foot
handicapped-accessible play area will go.
The playground committee has
been discussing the project with library trustees and the library building committee
for several months.
Members of those groups have expressed support for
the playground but have remained hesitant because designs for a planned library
expansion have not been completed.
On Monday, selectmen voted to approve
the plan to put the playground in Library Plaza. They encouraged the library groups
to complete their planning as soon as possible so the playground committee can
begin its work.
"We have a playground committee that's ready to go
now," Selectmen Chairwoman Katharine O'Donnell said. "How do we find
a way that these plans align? ...I don't want these plans to be put on hold."
In May, voters at town meeting approved spending $450,000 on the initial
stages of a library renovation and expansion project.
The library groups
have questions about possible wetlands behind the library. O'Donnell encouraged
them to meet with the conservation commission soon.
The playground committee
has been working since January on plans for a new play space. Committee members
hope to apply for funding from the community preservation committee next month.
The
playground would replace the Marshfield Mazes, a castle-like wooden playground
structure off Forest Street that was torn down in August 2007.
Since then,
the only playgrounds in town have been at the schools, where parents cannot bring
young children during school hours. More than 3,000 Marshfield children are 2
to 12 years old, playground committee Chairwoman Elizabeth Zimmer said.
A
group of parents have formed a nonprofit organization, Marshfield Kids at Play,
to raise money for the new playground. Zimmer said the selectmen's endorsement
will allow fundraising to proceed.
Sydney Schwartz may be reached at sschwartz@ledger.com.
|
By Sydney Schwartz
Posted
Aug 20, 2008 @ 09:26 AM Twenty-one years ago, a group of Marshfield
mothers organized to create an innovative community playground. Their group
raised more than $50,000 and, in October 1988, built the Marshfield Mazes playground
near Marshfield High School and the Martinson Elementary School. “This
is what we dreamed of, and to see it really happening – it hits you,”
organizer Kathy Burokas told The Patriot Ledger as the playground was being built
– a community project. Now, a year after the Marshfield Mazes was
torn down, another group of parents is hoping to recreate the effort. Marshfield
Kids at Play, a nonprofit organization formed to raise money for a new community
playground, met Monday night with two of the women who spearheaded the Marshfield
Mazes project. The group is hoping to build a playground in Library Plaza
in June 2009. They expect the cost to be between $350,000 and $400,000. “We
wanted to talk to the people who had actually gone through the process,”
said Elizabeth Zimmer, a member of the group and chairwoman of the town playground
committee. “They both say it was the most amazing experience.” Zimmer
said the committee will meet with the trustees of Ventress Memorial Library and
the library building committee on Monday to discuss the site. After that, they
will seek selectmen’s support. Marshfield Kids at Play has scheduled
a community forum for Sept. 22 at the library. It is also planning a golf tournament
and other fundraising projects. The tournament will be held Oct. 27 at Marshfield
Country Club. The Mazes project was led by Burokas, Janet Gibson and Mary
Beth Southerton. Planning took 17 months. Hundreds of people helped build the
playground, a castle-like wooden playground structure, in five days.. The
playground was closed in December 2006 after a car slammed into the structure.
The public works department razed the structure last August. Zimmer said
she was in 10th grade at the high school when the Mazes playground was built.
She remembers being “blown away” by all of the volunteer support. Now
she has 5-year-old twins and a 1-year-old daughter. She and other parents are
frustrated by the dearth of playgrounds in town. She said the women who
spearheaded the Mazes project told her this week that it was an amazing –
and all-consuming – experience. “You don’t mind, because
it’s a passion project,” she said. “ It already kind of is for
me. I’m thoroughly enjoying it.” Sydney Schwartz may be
reached at sschwartz@ledger.com. HOW
TO HELP WHAT: Marshfield Kids at Play will be
hosting a golf tournament to raise money for a community playground. WHEN:
Oct. 27. The best-ball tournament will begin with a shotgun start at 11:30 a.m.
Registration will be conducted from 10:30 to 11:15. The dinner will start at 5:30
p.m. and will include a raffle and an auction. WHERE: Marshfield
Country Club, 515 Moraine St. WHY: Marshfield children
have been without a community playground since the Marshfield Mazes was torn down.
Parents have been traveling to neighboring towns with such facilities. Organizers
hope to build a new playground that allows children with physical disabilities
to use the play structures. COST: $150 per player; $40
for dinner only. The $150 fee covers golf, use of a riding cart, a gift bag and
dinner. Hole sponsorship opportunities are available. Marshfield Kids at
Play will invite local schoolchildren to create artwork representing the sponsors
of each hole. CONTACT: E-mail MarshfieldKidsAtPlay@gmail.com
or call 781-834-PLAY. |
Marshfield
Kids at Play
Getting into the swing of things
By Lydia Mulvany
As
more Marshfield parents became involved with a selectmen-appointed committee,
formed to build a new playground to replace the defunct Marshfield Mazes, committee
head Elizabeth Zimmer decided it was time to form a nonprofit group.
The
result is MKAP: Marshfield Kids at Play, Inc.
MKAP, which currently
has nine members, hopes Marshfield will be the first South Shore town to have
a community playground with entirely accessible play structures- a barrier free
playground that allows kids of all abilities to fully participate by using ramps
and other disability-friendly structures.
“We started
Marshfield Kids at Play because when we lost our playground, we lost a piece of
our community.” said Elizabeth Zimmer, president and co-founder of Marshfield
Kids at Play. “With kids drawn more to the television and the computer
these days, parents need as many options as possible to get them out of the house
and socializing with fellow school-aged children.
“Playgrounds
are at the heart of any childhood, and we are making every possible effort to
ensure that it stays that way for Marshfield kids.”
The
nonprofit organization, unlike the committee, will be eligible for grants, Zimmer
said when the committee researched the cost of building a playground, it discovered
the Pembroke playground received a sizeable chunk of grant money – up to
$60,000 – as a tax-exempt nonprofit.
“It would
be nice to be able to fund the whole project and show we made this effort,”
Zimmer said.
Currently, the committee is deciding on a site
for the new playground and has narrowed it down to two places. Library Plaza
is one. Zimmer has not announced the other because it is not town-owned,
and talks are still going on.
The original criteria for the
parcels called for a centrally located place about an acre in size and along Route
139 corridor.
The Mazes were closed and demolished in August
after concerns about the wood used in the playground’s construction and
damage caused by an automobile.
Zimmer said she hopes to begin
gathering more community input as to the type of equipment people wanted to see,
and also hopes selectmen will allow MKAP to be involved in the construction and
assemble the equipment.
“We would love anyone with ideas,
anyone who could help with fundraisers,” Zimmer said. “We’ll
probably do the selling of the bricks, where you can put a kid’s name or
an engraving on it, and they go into the picnic area.”
Zimmer
said she also hoped to have Plexiglass cases for rotating exhibits around the
fencing, and maybe a slide like the one in Pembroke’s playground, which,
Zimmer says, every kid is in love with. “It has rollers, and it also
happens to be really good for kids with sensory problems,” she said.
Zimmer
said she is also looking into the Shade Foundation.
“It
provides shade for parks with these freakishly large umbrellas,” she said. “That
plastic gets very hot and kids can’t touch it. At Library Plaza, there
isn’t any tree cover. It’s really amazing what some playgrounds
have.”
Volunteers might also be needed for childcare
if parents are given permission to assemble the playground as they did with the
Marshfield Mazes.
Residents who would like to get involved
or offer feedback can contact Zimmer at Marshfieldkidsatplay@gmail.com,
or 781-834-PLAY.
