Allan Appel Photo
Tomekia Mabry.
Tomekia Mabry’s 10-year-old son Quincy helped design these monkey bars that he’ll soon be dangling from, as 200 volunteers erected a spiffy new playground in one of the housing authority’s isolated family developments on Valley Street. Despite rain, rain, and more rain, they did it all in six hours.
They did it on Friday. It is the second new playground that the Housing Authority of New Haven (HANH) has secured through a competitive grant process with KaBOOM, a national not-for-profit dedicated to fighting what they call the “play deficit” for America’s kids.
Click here for the story of the first playground, also built in six hours, at Westville Manor.
HANH’s operations director Renee Dobos said that the Valley Townhouses were selected because they are the only family development in the HANH‘s portfolio that does not have an adequate playground.
(l-r)Valley Townhouse resident Tony Daniels & bench master Barnum Financial Group’s Marc Markovitz.
Tony Daniels’s 4‑year old son Makhai has played on what he described as a few primitive swings on a slab, without even benches inside for parents to sit on to supervise.
Daniels is 36 years old and has lived at the townhouses for 20 years. His grandparents lived there and he with them. In all that time he said there was never a proper playground.
“Any afternoon ten to 15 kids are out playing,” he said. That usually means that a parent walks them up the road to a playground on South Genessee Street. Sometimes the kids go up themselves, along the fast-driven and curving Valley Street.
“This playground solves our safety situation,” said Cynthia Mitchell, the president of Valley Townhouses tenants’ organization.
Now Daniels, who lives in unit# 228 right across from the playground ‚can sit on his porch or just look out his window at his son playing. Makhai was in pre-school during construction Friday afternoon, as were the other kids, but Daniels was certain of what his son’s reaction would be.
“He’s gonna love it. He likes running, climbing, jumping off things.”
The new play apparatus also comes with six handsome benches, which were part of the six-hour construction. The play apparatus will be inside the fenced play area.
Dobos said that the 40 families at Valley Townhouses have an average annual income of $17,000. The families have 45 kids among them, with 17 classified as having special needs.
Dobos said all the kids from the Valley Townhouses gathered and were asked to draw pictures of their dream playground.
Volunteer Daniel Champagne securing the clilmbing wall’s concrete footing with stones.
Items included were, a climbing wall, slides, swings, what she termed “bouncy items,” and, of course, Quincy Mabry’s monkey bars.
“Everyone thought the picture was terrific,” said his proud mom. These were all sent to Kaboom and the playground elements decided upon.
KaBOOM partnered with the MetLife Foundation and one of its affiliates, Barnum Financial Group in Shelton to provide person power for Build Day, a rain-or-shine volunteer commitment that Friday fielded 160 volunteers plus 40 from HANH.
HANH Vacancy Coordinator Joe Trent congratulates KaBOOM Project Manager Kathryn Lusk.
The 200 arrived at 6 a.m. Friday and were divided into 16 teams each with a whimsical name but not so whimsical work, like mixing 16,000 pounds of concrete for the footings and spreading 130 cubic yards of engineered wood fiber, aka mulch, which covers the ground area of the apparatus.
Mabry was assigned to “Spiderman,” the team that did the assembly under the watchful eye of the KaBOOM Project Manager Kathryn Lusk.
One of the build rules is that you don’t have a choice in your team. So Marc Markovtiz, who as an agency sales director for Barnum, is in charge of 20 salespeople, Friday was in charge of crew measuring, cutting, screwing, and assembling the six sturdy benches.
When a reporter arrived, Markovitz and company had assembled four benches, with two in progress. Like most of the other volunteers, he arrived at 8 a.m. “I’m really excited about what’s going on,” he said. He pronounced it “a little surreal” having started at 8:30 and being done by 2:30.
Joe Mauriello (foreground) hauling 60 pounds of wet mulch.
As the rain came down, the volunteers got out their caps and their ponchos but no umbrellas, because all hands were at work. Joe Mauriello, who works for Barnum Financial in Shelton, was helping to haul more 60-pound tarp-fulls of mulch than he cared to count.
A reporter expressed gratitude for his taking a moment from his slog in the mud to talk. “Thank you very mulch,” he responded.