Volunteers Pitch In to Create ‘Oasis’ Playground for Bristol Kids

State Senator Tommy Tomlinson said he was tired of looking at the old boron-laced dirt pile at the site of Snyder-Girotti Elementary School in Bristol Borough.

Now he won’t have to, as the dirt pile is gone and a beautiful new playground for the kids of town is in place.

More than 200 volunteers from the community, Bristol’s Raising the Bar campaign, Habitat for Humanity and PECO descended upon the elementary school Friday to build the playground.

The playground installation started promptly at 8:30 a.m. and continued until 2:30 p.m. Then, volunteers and dignitaries gathered and cut the ribbon on the playground.

Co-chair of the playground committee, Kathleen Lochel thanked the the school board, board President Charles Groff and past President Ralph DiGuiseppe III for their work to make the playground possible.

“I’m just really proud today,” Groff told the crowd. He said the site of the playground was originally set to be a parking lot before the new plan for the site was formulated.

The playground was erected through national nonprofit organization KaBOOM! PECO contributed $85,000 and community groups like Bristol Raising the Bar raised the other 10 percent. The KaBOOM program works to fight a “play deficit in America by “constructing innovative kid-inspired playspaces, sharing our knowledge and tools, and building a national movement to save play.”

Students worked with volunteers to sketch out their ideas for the playground. From there, organizers poured over the kids suggestions and used them when designing the playground.

PECO officials said they started their involvement with the KaBOOM! program in 2008 in honor of a lineman that was killed on the job.

While the playground’s cement base was still curing and kids weren’t yet able to play on the equipment, they were excitedly checking out their new playspace.

“What you’ve produced here is an oasis,” Congressman Mike Fitzpatrick said. He added that kids will now run outside to the playground to “enjoy their favorite subject, recess.”

State Rep. John Galloway and Tomlinson worked to get the $1.4 million grant that helped the Bucks County Redevelopment Authority mitigate the once sat at the site. Once the pile was taken care of, the playground was able to be installed.

Many in the audience commented on how the

“Lets make this project a shining example of what can happen when people work together,” Pezza told the crowd.