The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Scaling new heights
St. John Paul II School community rallies to fund, design play dome
MIDDLETOWN — Unphased by temperatures hovering near freezing Friday morning, two dozen students at St. John Paul II School bundled up to scale the new 13-foot-high dome playscape installed last month at the rear of the building.
On the day before classes ended and the holiday break began, many of the children were decked out in Christmas-themed outfits: jolly red Santa hats, a boy clad in a full Santa suit and another with a necklace of multicolored holiday lights, and a young lady sporting a decorated Christmas tree headband.
They scrambled along the netting and heavy-duty ropes on the Kompan Explorer Dome as cries of “look at me!” resounded across the playground. Each tried to reach the top of the massive jungle gym at the Catholic elementary and middle school that serves children from pre-kindergarten to eighth grade.
“This feels great,” said Principal Lawrence Fitzgerald as he surveyed the activity, dressed for the season in a Santa hat.
“The kindergartners, their first time out, some couldn’t figure out how to get down,” Fitzgerald said, gesturing to the chattering children scaling all sections of the bars and ropes.
“Now I’ve got them sliding down the poles,” he said with obvious pride.
“Various ropes and ladders encourage children to stretch, jump, sway, balance, hang, bend and twist,” according to Kompan, which encourages schoolchildren to play games of tag, “don’t touch the ground” and “follow the leader.”
Lawrence used a giant pair of shears to slice a large red ribbon stretched across the structure, christening the playscape Friday morning.
“They transformed what was a parking lot into what you see in nine days,” said school board Chairman Chris Strom, project manager.
The board came up with the idea for the jungle gym a couple of years ago, Strom said, and it opened to children over Veterans Day weekend.
In all, 125 yards of mulch were laid out for both playscape areas, which are separated by a new sidewalk, Fitzgerald said.
Fundraising is still taking place to pay for the second phase of the project: a more traditional, multilevel playscape to will include a rockclimbing wall and two slides.
It will be installed over the summer once enough money is raised to cover costs, Fitzgerald said.
“This will allow for kids of all levels to enjoy it — for the younger ones and the kids who are a little crazier,” the principal said.
From start to finish, the project was a group effort, Lawrence said.
The Troiano family made a significant donation and Gino Troiano Jr. managed all of the site preparation.
TradeMark Contractors of Bristol also made a sizable gift to the project in materials and labor.
“They had crews of people preparing the site, adding drainage, installing curbing and putting in new sidewalks,” said Eileen Strom, administrative assistant at the school.
Trucking, donated by Creek View Property Management, of Middletown, was integral to the site preparation, Eileen Strom said. Workers hauled the asphalt and material off site for disposal. Food for the auction and workers installing the playground was donated by the David Allen Hospitality Group, of Berlin, owned by the L’heureux family, whose two children attend the school.
Also, the St. John Paul II Home and School Association raised $21,000 during a recent live and silent auction to pay for a portion of the playscape.
Donations, to help pay for the second phase of the playground project can be sent to St. John Paul II School, 87 S. Main St., Middletown, CT 06457. For information, call 860-347-2978, visit the Facebook page at jpii.org or check out the website at jpii.org.