First day back to school at Plymouth celebrates new playground equipment

By Tina Comeau

THE VANGUARD

NovaNewsNow.com

You’ll have to forgive the students at Plymouth School if their favourite part of their first day back to school was recess.

It’s not that they didn’t like being in the classroom, it’s just that the ribbon was officially cut on a new playground structure for the school on Thursday.

But while the ceremony only took a few minutes, getting the playground structure is a process that took years.

“Six years,” says parent teacher association (PTA) president Andrea LeBlanc when asked how far back the ball got rolling on new playground equipment.

Through the years there have been countless fundraisers held at the school, including spring flings, a breakfast with Santa and fun nights at the school. The PTA received $5,000 from the Municipality of Argyle and a $5,000 grant from Nova Scotia Sport and Recreation. Support also came from the Tri-County Regional School Board that helped to advance the project.

But with an estimated overall cost of about $20,000 for the project, it meant parents and the community really had to step up.

LeBlanc says they did, both through their support of fundraisers and also through manual labour in removing old playground equipment that was no longer safe.

She said no one shed any tears when the old yellow caterpillar play apparatus – a.k.a. a rusty metal tube – was removed.

So after six years you’d figure the PTA and school could sit back and relax, right?

Well, actually wrong.

This was phase one of the project and behind every phase one is always a phase two. This first phase involved play equipment for the school’s younger students. Phase two involves fundraising for more playground equipment for the school’s older grades.

With their money spent, LeBlanc says they’re back to starting from scratch.

“So we’ll be doing more spring flings and we’re hoping we’ll get more grants,” she says, adding it won’t take another six years – at least not if they can help it.