It was an all hands on deck for community effort Wednesday at the future site of the Hasbrouck playground in New Paltz. Organizers are hoping to construct an entire playground over the next five days.
"We're off to an amazing start, this is a labor of love, total volunteer commitments, so everyone here is working by their own accord and coming here to help us make this playground a reality for the future," said Michele Zipp, a New Paltz trustee.
The aging Hasbrouck playground is being rebuilt at a new site without the wooden beams of the previous design, with safer recycled plastic materials being used.
"I have four and six-year-old daughters. We use the playground all the time at Hasbrouck park and I'm excited to be a part of the community to pitch in to help build a new playground," said Lilah Sheehan, a New Paltz resident. "That's part of the reason why I stayed in New Paltz when I moved here 20 some odd years ago; it's just an all hands on deck type of community."
Even the mayor and town supervisor joined in.
"People get their hands dirty and I think people really like seeing things physically done and it's pretty exciting you may work on a committee for years and see a policy change but you can work on a playground for five days and you can see something being built," said Neil Bettez, the New Paltz town supervisor.
The SUNY New Paltz softball team even pitched in.
"A lot of our teammates are business majors so they're at van den Berg [hall] all the time. So this is right across from us and it's a great opportunity for us to meet people in the community and also just give a helping hand," said Emily Fox, a junior on the SUNY New Paltz softball team.
Project coordinators say over 300 volunteers have already signed up but they're still looking for more to get the job done.
"We welcome all volunteers for all of our shifts on all the days so we started today wednesday and we go from basically 7 or 8 a.m. till 8 p.m. and on Sunday it's going to be 8 to 5," Zipp said.
You can sign up to be a volunteer online by clicking here or in person on Hasbrouck avenue in New Paltz. Free meals and childcare for the weekend shifts are provided for all volunteers.