Penquis Valley Community Playground fundraising enters homestretch
MILO — An age-oriented playground has been in place behind Penquis Valley Middle School since last spring. Now efforts are underway to raise $9,500 to complete the project with the construction of an adjacent basketball court and kickball/soccer field.
Standing by the play area after school on Friday, March 18, grades 5-6 social studies teacher Debbie Page said students and other children in the community have enjoyed using the playground since it formally opened last May. She said a swing set and zipline are awaiting installation, likely in May, and picnic tables to go under the pavilion should be ready in the spring too.
Page said land has been cleared for the basketball court. “We’re just waiting for all our final funds. Bishop Concrete will pour the concrete for that.”
PLAYGROUND ADDITION – The Penquis Valley Community Playground is in place on the Milo campus, and a GoFundMe page is seeking to raise $9,500 for the construction of an accompanying basketball court and kickball/soccer field.
“Then right behind the playground, it’s up a level, is the field and that’s going to be our kickball/soccer field,” she said. Page said the playing surface won’t be game regulation size but Railroaders teams and others can use it for practice.
“We’ve even added a Gaga pit and we’re putting in another Gaga pit,” she added about space for an enclosed dodge ball game.
“Hopefully there will be some people who see it as a worthy cause and how hard the community has worked to raise the money that they have,” Page said. She said a bit more than $154,000 has been accumulated so far for the playground project through donations, fundraisers and grants.
“It was astronomical what this small community came up with,” Page said.
PICNIC PAVILION – These spring picnic tables are scheduled to be constructed for the pavilion at the Penquis Valley Community Playground in Milo.
Previously, the younger students at Penquis Valley Middle School had little more than a decades-old basketball court and a small area with a pile of dirt and two roads going by it to use during recess. Page and others saw the need and work began to change this with a new age-suitable playground.
SAD 41 fifth-graders moved to Penquis Valley several years ago, a few years after the sixth-graders came over from the Milo and Brownville elementary schools.
A GoFundMe page will be launched in the near future seeking to raise the $9,500.