Lisle Park District Playground Donated to Children of Haiti

Last April, the playground at Valley Forge Park in Lisle was scheduled for replacement. The vendor that won the bid to replace the playground suggested the Lisle Park District contact Kids Around the World, a nonprofit organization that “builds playgrounds and hope for the children of the world.” Kids Around the World works with municipalities that are replacing or removing playgrounds by helping disassemble older playgrounds and then refurbish, repair and repaint as necessary. Then the playgrounds are inspected for safety and installed in communities around the world “devastated by war, natural disaster and economic stress.” The Lisle Park District Board of Commissioners and staff agreed to recycle the old playground and give it to such a positive and green cause. The Lisle Park District maintenance employees went to work carefully disassembling the old playground and volunteers from Kids Around the World took the pieces to their Rockford facility to be refurbished, inventoried, crated and stored while waiting to be shipped to a community in need.
Kids Around the World determined that the playground was most needed in a tent village in Haiti called “Vilage Mirak," or Miracle Village, located outside of Fond Parisien which is about 20 miles east of Port-au-Prince. In its master plan, Miracle Village will build 500 homes, with public buildings, roads and a market. The Kids Around the World volunteers broke ground for the former Lisle Park District playground on January 12, 2011, one year after the devastating earthquake that destroyed Haiti. After five days of digging in the rocky soil, pouring cement, reassembling framework, setting up slides and ladders, and passing inspection by the certified playground safety inspectors, the playground was complete. On January 16, 2011 the volunteers decorated the newly built playground with balloons and held a dedication ceremony in the village. As the ribbon was cut, the children rushed to the playground with smiles and laughter. Kids Around the World is looking for volunteers and partners that may know of any playgrounds available for recycling. Please visit: www.KidsAroundTheWorld.com for more information.

By The Lisle Park District
Yesterday at 9:18 a.m.