Philadelphia Sports Icons Support PTO’s ‘Project Playground’

On Friday night, local families and community members of Falls Township and surrounding regions gathered in the cafeteria of Pennsbury High School’s East Campus from 6-10 pm to draw awareness to a multi-faceted cause – Project Playground.

Friday night’s event is part of a three day event titled NFL All Sports Weekend organized by Manor Elementary School’s Parent Teacher Organization as well as Dynasty Sports Collectibles, a rather new Oxford Valley Mall tenant. The Kickoff VIP Night, equipped with a sports raffle and silent auction also brought together incredible forces in the Philadelphia sports arena to meet and talk sports with local fans. Sean Landeta of Philaldelphia Eagles fame, and The Hammer, former Philadelphia Flyer Dave Schultz, sat together among the fans early in the evening, shaking hands, signing memorabilia and smiling ear to ear – all in favor of a great cause- raising awareness for the lack of adequate playground equipment provided at Manor Elementary.

Last year, the third through fifth grade designated playground at the elementary school was closed due to safety issues which violated various state safety requirements. With this playground closure and economic hardships felt by the school district, the district has not publicly announced plans to rebuild the playground and has instead planned the eventual closure of the primary playground regarded for the kindergartners through second graders.

The playground closures have alerted and infuriated the members of the PTO, particularly Joe Salnaitis – whose daughter currently attends Manor Elementary. The lack of sufficient playground equipment has Salnaitis worried about the lack of physical education occurring and the increase in laziness and obesity it could lead to.

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Salnaitis as well as other passionate parents have organized Project Playground as their initiative to get Manor students exercising again. The group is setting out to raise $100,000 in order to build a state of the art playground to be used by Manor students and open to the surrounding public.

According to Manor Elementary PTO’s website, “We are not only raising funds through multiple fundraising efforts for the intermediate playground but we are thinking long term for the primary playground as well.” Project Playground as of April 12 has raised $10,143.08 towards their initiative.