When they start classes next month, the Newton County Elementary School kindergartners and first graders will have a brand-new playground castle to enjoy.
On Friday, around a dozen NCES parents and volunteers from the school’s Parent Teacher Organization worked all morning to assemble and install the new castle at the playground in the front of the school.
Carol Youngblood, NCES PTO President, said the PTO and the district had been raising money for about three years to replace the old castle, which was 20 years old. The new castle cost around $30,000. The volunteers started just after sunrise and had finished most of the work by noon.
“We thought it was going to take all day, but it didn’t take long at all,” Youngblood said. “We had been working on this for several years, but we really started looking into installing it this past year. We’ve been trying to coordinate getting it here. We were supposed to do it in June, but we ended up having to do it in the middle of July because we just got the equipment in.”
Representatives from Landscape Structures were also on hand to supervise the installation, and the castle was manufactured by Moonshot Recreation, the main supplier of playground equipment in Mississippi and Alabama.
“Children are shaped by play and this is one of the most organic ways that children learn is through play, and we believe what we do makes a big difference in their lives” said Laurie Alley, a representative of Moonshot Recreation.
Youngblood said the PTO and the district will continue to raise money to replace older equipment in the kindergarten and first grade playground as well as the second and third grade playground in the rear of the school.
“We’d like to raise some money and help build them some new equipment because the equipment that was here is as old as the school, which is 20 years old,” Youngblood said. “And some of the equipment came from an older school after they consolidated, so it was time for something new. We have five phases that we’d like to raise money for, and that includes this playground and the second and third grade playground.”
For more information about joining the NCES PTO or donating to the future playground projects, call 601-668-4960.
