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Email from Allison FrederickHarteis :

Greetings, Everyone!

This is the email you have all been waiting for. The procedure, schedule, volunteer needs and other information regarding the construction of the playground. At the bottom of the email, I also want feedback about potential meeting time- so check there and let me know if and when you can meet during the week of July 17th. Thanks.

Please read through this carefully, consider your skills, talents, interests and how you can contribute to the playground effort. You might want to print it out because it is long and you will need to refer to it later. I appreciate you wanting to help and doing all that you can to build the playground. Everyone is needed. In fact, I think we will need folks beyond ourselves. So as you think about how you can help, think also about family and/or friends who might be willing to help in our effort. Also, if your teen-age child(ren) is not on the list serve, please ask him or her if he/she would like to help. It is a wonderful way to work together. We will see great results and it will bring amazing value to our life at EcoVillage, even if you don't have young children yourself.

On the building team alone, we need at least 39 builders (plus tool and materials coordinators, volunteer coordinator, food chairs and preparers and folks who are helping with the children so that the adults can build).

I Construction Schedule

Thursday: August 17-- Mid-afternoon. Learning Stuctures arrives to EcoVillage to measure and layout the playground site. We will need 6-10 volunteers available for sanding, routing and preparation of the construction materials, any skill level.

7:00-8:00 pm: All Team Captains (I'll explain later) will attend training sessions led by a LSI representative to review the job assignments, construction techniques, safety procedures and receive detailed assembly drawings. All Coordinators should attend (ie: tool and materials coordinator, volunteer coordinator) and all volunteers are welcome and encouraged to attend.

Friday: August 18-- Framing Day- Construction Begins, Rain or Shine (or 100degree heat)

7:30 AM: Learning Structures rep. arrives, supervises site preparation and preliminary construction of structures.

Materials and Tool Coordinators required on site all day. All materials and majority of tools must be on site and available.

8:00 AM: Utility auger truck sets posts. If unavailable, posts are set with a backhoe.


At least 6-10 Volunteers needed: Volunteers arrive with tools to assist with post setting, painting, organizing, and fabrication of major wooden structures. Sturdy work clothes and hard shoes recommended. Each should bring as many tools on the Tool list as possible. (see below)

12:00 - 1:00: Lunch provided by the food committee.

5:00 PM: Daily objectives achieved, tools packed up and site secured until following morning.

*Note: If the daily objectives are not achieved, LSI will generate a list of items for continue work during the early evening.



Saturday, August 19: Playground Raising Day

7:00 Volunteer Coordinator Sets up the reception table to welcome, register, name tag, and assign arriving volunteers.

Materials and Tool coordinators organize the respective staging areas.

Access to electrical power is required.

7:30 AM LSI representative arrives and supervises the construction.

Team Captains arrive, locate the structure sites, materials area, etc.

8:00 AM: Volunteers arrive. Sturdy work clothes and hard shoes recommended. Each should bring as many of the tools on the Tool lists as possible.

Bobcats, backhoes and front end loaders assist voluntees during the day spreading surfacing around completed structures.

12:00: Lunch break is taken in shifts, lunch provided by the food committee.

5:30: Clean-up: tools, scrap wood, etc. are gathered and removed from the work areas.

6:00: All structures are completed. Work force test all playground equipment for safety and fun value at completion. All present are officially regarded as kids! Let's have a celebration!


Volunteers:

All of the volunteers will be divided into teams that work on different structures that will be assembled into one big structure.

There are 11 different teams which will be supervised by a Team Captain. Here are the different structures that we will build, and the minimum number of volunteers we need for each:

Wide Slide- 24', 4 volunteers

Water Wheel Climber- 3 volunteers

Deck-Octagon, 12' 6x6 4 volunteers

Deck- 6x9 3 volunteers

Ramp- 3 x12 w/siding 3 volunteers

Climbing Wall to Deck 3 volunteers

Border Bench 3 volunteers

Wavy Ramp- 12' access. 3 volunteers

Fire Pole 3 volunteers

Talk Tubes 3 volunteers

Wood Sealing crew 7 volunteers

All construction is broken down into four skill levels as follows:

Level 1 Raking, Sanding, Shoveling

Level 2 Operation of Hand Tools (hammers, handsaws, drills, wrenches)

Level 3 Basic carpentry skills (ie: building decks)

Can operate a circular saw, level and square

Level 4 Strong carpentry skill or construction skills

May have professional contracting experience.



Skill Level Requirements:

Framing Day: We need 6-10 volunteers, half of which must be level 4. These volunteers do not have to be team captains.

Raising Day: All levels are needed on raising day. On Raising Day we will need:

8 people with Level 4 skills,

11 people with Level 3 skills

10 people with Level 2 skills

10 people with Level 1 skills



This count includes the Team Captains.

Team Captains: For each structure, there will be a team captain that will lead that team. The team captains will be the highest skill level for that structure.

If you feel that you would instead like to help with the children or with providing food during the building days, there are committees set up for that. You might even want to contribute a bit of food even if you are building. Barbara and Sarah Webber are coordinating the food, you can reach them at 540-822-4287. Tena Meadows O'Rear and her daughter, Scotia, will be working with the children. Tena can be reached at 540-822-4070.

Maggie Scobie is organizing the volunteers. You could email her directly at megscobie@aol.com or call her at 301-675-2970 and let her know how you would like to volunteer. Please include me on the cc: line if possible so that I can be up on the state of the volunteers. My email is fredhart@att.net. We have a short bit of time to get organized and we need to best communication we can get. If you know for some reason you will not be able to be a part of the "Great Playground Raising", then please let us know so that we will not count you among the potential volunteers. Maggie or I might give you a call directly, if we don't hear from you so that we can make sure that everyone who is willing and available, is included and used to the best of their skills and talents.

And remember, to please pass this information along to your teen children, and other family and friends that might like to participate. A friend of mine mentioned to me recently that she rarely ever does anything with her hands. She never produces anything. This is the perfect opportunity for her and all of us that might feel like her. We will try to make this a fun, productive, learning time for everyone. Also, remember that there are a lot of folks who vacation in August so hopefully, we will be able to get 39+ folks who can make the dates.



Now on to the Tools List:

The following are the tools that we will need for the building of the playground and laying the ground cover. Some are things that we all have. Grady will be organinizing the tools for the time period so please let him know at 540-822-4563 or ecovil@aol.com and again if you could put me on the cc: line on the email, I would appreciate it. My email is fredhart@att.net.

We will need:

Heavy Equipment:

1 Utility Auger Truck w/ 18" diam. bit

1 Bobcat or similar machine

1 generator (possible backup) 5000 watts or larger, with extra fuel



Power Tools

3 circular saws with Carbide blades

1 12" Compound Miter Saw

4 Electric Drills, 3/8" chuck

1 electric drill, 1/2" chuck

1 reciprocating saw

1 chainsaw, extra fuel, sharp chains and bar oil

1 router

2 belt &/or with 3/4" quarter round bit

1 heavy duty jigsaws

1 table saw with good wood blades



Miscellaneous tools

6'-8' step ladders

wheelbarrows

saw horses

levels

tent: rain and sun shelters 40' x 40' (or other sizes)

tarps/ rain covers with rope

3/4" sockets- 1/2" drive

ratchets

large crescent wrench

vice grips

cat's paws

shovels

garden rakes

extension cords- 100ft, 12/3 gauge wire

extension cords- 50', construction grade

extension cord splitters, with 3 or 4 way plug ends

dust masks

safety goggles

ear plugs

work gloves

Pre-Framing Day Work List

There are some items that can and should be done before the framing day. If you are able to help on any of these, please let me know.

1. Cut four hand rails from the trex material. We have a pattern and the measurements.

2. Help with the climbing wall mural. Margot Ogsbury said that she might be able to help the children paint a mural that will be used on the board for the climbing wall to one of the platforms. If you would like to be in on this, let her or me know.

3. Benches: we have the pattern and it can be built ahead of time.

4. Water Wheel Pieces: we need to cut the pieces for the water wheel climbing apparatus so that on the building days they can be put together. We need to cut 20 pieces from 2 x 10 pieces.

Ground Covering: We also need to figure out what kind of ground covering we should use and what the costs will be. If you have any connections or would like to be the point person on this, please let me know. We have a few leads already, but we need someone to take charge and run with it.

Finally, I would like to have a meeting with all interested parties so that we can see each other face to face and hammer out some of these details, volunteer commitments, update each other on the progress, etc. I will be out of town July 9-16 so I would like to get together sometime the following week. If you are one of the coordinators (food, children, materials, tools, volunteer), I would really like for you to be there. I would like all others to come if they can too. Each of the times that folks have met, we have left energized and feeling good about this project. I know it feels really good to rally around a project and have a plan of where to go from there. So, let's do it. I propose to meet July 17, 18, 19 or 20. The earlier the better, but I want to make sure that folks can make it. Please let me know what works best for you and I will let you know when and where to be.

Thank you so much for reading this far, and for being a part of this wonderful adventure. I think this playground will bring value to our lives at EcoVillage as well as potentially attract future families to want to live there. Many blessings-

Please feel free to contact me this next week while I am away. I will be checking email everyday and get back to you about a meeting time. Also, let Maggie know when and how you can be available to help out and let Grady know what tools you have that you can contribute to the effort. Thanks again,

Cheers!

Allison FrederickHarteis

fredhart@att.net or 540-822-4563