FINDLAY - Bob Poe has done his share of volunteer work, including helping to make 1,000 dozen doughnuts at the Hancock County Fair for the Kiwanis Club.
But working on the city's newest, most elaborate playground with upwards of 3,000 other volunteers is in a class of its own. “It's great to be around people and work on a project you know young people will enjoy,” said Mr. Poe, 77, a retired contractor.
The Fort Findlay Playground, as it's been dubbed, is a $200,000 community-built children's paradise that is going up in Emory Adams Park on the city's south side. Money for the playground was raised through donations; the work is purely volunteer.
As a project captain, Mr. Poe has been on the job from about 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day this week. The hundreds of other volunteers have come for a morning or an afternoon, but many stay longer than they expect.
“We have 195 people here today,” Margaret Juarez, volunteer coordinator, said yesterday morning. It was the biggest morning shift turnout yet.
“About half of them stay on. They haven't been able to leave,” she said. “You don't really believe it until you see it going down.”
Workers come from all walks of life. Some are students at the University of Findlay; others come from Findlay High School. Service clubs, church groups, even nonviolent offenders from the county's Rehabilitation Opportunity Center have been on-site daily.
“I tell people we're going to build this playground in six days with 2,700 people, and they don't believe it,” said Tony Price, co-chairman of the project.
Mr. Price, whose employer, National Lime & Stone Co., gave him the week off to work at the playground, said he was rather skeptical too when he first heard about it more than a year ago. The fund-raising happened to be easier than he expected, and organizers ultimately raised in excess of $215,000. The balance will be used to start a maintenance fund for Fort Findlay.
“When you start talking about something that is community-built, for the children - we have some nice parks in Findlay, but a playground like this we didn't have,” he said.
The playground, which will feature a jail, towers, dragon, and a volcano, is being built at the corner of Sixth and Blanchard streets - land that previously was farmed or overgrown.
Robert Ruse, service-safety director for the city and co-chairman of the project, said the city purchased the 5-acre parcel that abuts Emory Adams park for $175,000. In addition to the playground, there will be room for at least two more soccer fields at the park, which already is the main soccer complex in town.
While supporters like Mr. Price and Mr. Ruse have young children who can't wait to climb on the new playground, others are grandparents or simply people who want to help.
Red Hendricks, 66, showed up for work every morning since Tuesday and planned to return today with his wife, Sheila, even though it's their 44th wedding anniversary. Mr. Hendricks said he plans to take her out for dinner this evening, which means they can work on the playground this morning.
“I just wanted to come out and volunteer,” Mr. Hendricks said, obviously enjoying the project.
Last April, representatives of Leathers & Associates of Ithaca, N.Y., met with children in kindergarten through fifth grade in the Findlay city schools to solicit ideas for the playground. They took those to the drawing board and developed plans.
Because the kids had input into the project, they have a greater sense of ownership.
“Three thousand kids helped design it, and maybe 300 said they wanted a dragon, but every time they come out, they'll say there's my dragon,” Mr. Ruse said.
Mayor John Stozich was putting in his time when he could. He said he had spent about five hours at the park Wednesday shoveling dirt, pushing a wheelbarrow, tamping ground around posts, and drilling holes in wood.
“I think it's an awfully nice addition to the community,” he said. “This work is really bringing people together.”
First Published April 20, 2001, 2:10 p.m.
