Pierce Middle School students are helping design their first-ever playground, using profits from their annual Fun Run.
This playground will not only give incoming students the chance to enjoy something during recess, but it will also give students a sense of pride, since they chose the design. After saving a portion of the Fun Run profit for the past several years, the Pierce PTO has saved around $20,000, and they’re hoping to add more money with this year’s upcoming Fun Run. Pierce’s principal, Sara Dirkse, has high hopes for the project, and the students are excited that they got the opportunity to help choose their future playground coming this spring.
“We kind of gave our kids some examples of what you could add and got their feedback,” Dirkse said. “We asked our fifth and sixth grade leadership teams, and then also our NJHS students, which are comprised of seventh and eighth grade students, to try to get a wide range.”
The idea of a playground being added to Pierce has been a dream for a while now. Lindy Holloway, a PTO member, is just as excited as everyone else and has been looking forward to finally starting the project.
“The PTO has been talking about funding a playground since the addition of fifth graders to middle school,” Holloway said. “We were recently given the green light from administration that we could move forward.”
Pierce has been slowly finding ways to make recess more exciting for all students over the years, from adding a walking track to an outline for a football field. They’ve worked hard to incorporate a diverse range of activities. Not only are they adding an obstacle course to their field, but they’ve also started putting a volleyball court in, which’ll be fully up by the end of this fall. Vivian Lindow ’29, a former Pierce student, was in the crowd that agreed Pierce didn’t have much to offer in terms of things to do during recess.
“I wish they had brought the volleyball courts earlier, but it was nice to just walk around,” Lindow said. “I just got bored really quickly.”
In all, the students had chosen the obstacle course. Though swings were a very popular choice, they’ll be able to have more people on the obstacle course and more room to interact as opposed to a swing set.
“So it’ll be wood chips down, and then it will be more of a natural kind of playscape, versus the big gist of colorful things that they’ve had in elementary school, so they’re trying to look a little bit more middle school-ish,” Dirkse said. “There will be a bigger cost in terms of putting it together, because we’ve never had something like this, so they have to dig in to do the excavation for the project, but we’ll be able to take wood chips from some of our elementaries that already have them.”
The playground is a big project with a long process, but it’ll be worth it in the end by adding diversity and more options for students, helping fifth graders adjust more easily by still having fun things to do at recess.
“I’m looking forward to it, and I know our PTO is excited about it too,” Dirkse said. “They’re currently putting things together right now, as the Fun Run is going on currently and will conclude on Oct. 3.”
