Revere playground swinging

REVERE – The Beachmont School Playground will be rebuilt in just two days thanks to a community effort on behalf of the park.Sixty volunteers, under the leadership of an organization called “Revere on the Move,” gathered Friday morning to start the project, and plan to have it finished by 5 p.m. today.Volunteers assembled playground equipment; moved it to the installation area; mixed and moved concrete; laid landscaping paper; and moved and spread mulch.Elle Baker, neighborhood organizer for “Revere on the Move,” said it would have taken contractors a week if volunteers hadn?t stepped up to the plate, beginning with a planning session in April.?Many hands make light work,” Baker said. “People have a great sense of satisfaction in saying, ?I built that?. The community build brings a sense of community and stewardship.”Baker said the playground will have multiple slides and climbing decks but the jungle gym is small in structure. It will be used for both Beachmont School students and for a community park, open daily from dawn to dusk.Beachmont Principal Percy Napier said the new addition is a huge relief since the old structure had safety issues and needed to be quickly modified. On a daily basis, 408 Beachmont School children in grades kindergarten through five use the park during recess and after school.?Kids got splinters from the wooden posts,” Napier said of the equipment, which was built in 1979. “They get excited about playing on it. You?ll see a big line of them. The most beneficial part is a community effort with members of the Beachmont community helping to build the structure from the ground up.”Napier said parents will walk by the slides with a sense of ownership and pride knowing their structure will be there for years to come.Parent Faith Hernandez?s daughter Dakota, 3, was hurt after she fell off a slide that was unstable due to its age. Her daughters Delilah, 7, and Deanna, 6, attend the Beachmont School.?I feel more comfortable having them play here now,” Hernandez said, who is treasurer of the parent-teacher organization.Hernandez told organizers they have no idea how grateful she and other parents are to “Revere on the Move” for taking the project on.House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo filed an amendment in the state?s budget last year for $230,000 to be spent on child safety projects in Revere.?Open spaces and parks provide residents with places to come together and create stronger communities,” DeLeo said. “It speaks volumes that Revere citizens and local and state officials are pitching in to help build this park. Revere has a bright future ahead of it that is being propelled by these committed individuals.”Baker said volunteers use power tools, such as drills, and wrenches, screwdrivers and hammers to assemble the unit quickly. Playworld out of Lewisburg, Pa., and Ultiplay out of Uxbridge manufactured the equipment.Joe McMahon, 50, of Framingham, is the sales representative for the eastern Massachusetts region and volunteered to help build the park.?Everyone has ownership of it,” McMahon said, who does 35 builds per year. “It?s like the old-fashioned ?barn-raising? concept.”