RICHMOND, Va. β Chimborazo Elementary School in Richmond's East End is turning to community fundraising to build a new playground after the school district denied their $250,000 budget request for the second consecutive year.
The school's third through fifth graders currently use a bare asphalt area with old exercise equipment during recess and after-school programs β a space that Principal Cordell Watkins describes as inadequate for children's play needs.
"Really this is a parking lot," Watkins said. "There's not any equipment here, there's not anything for the kids to do so we supply equipment, we supply balls and ropes and those kinds of things for the kids to use."
"It's basically like it's not even a playground," said fifth-grader Marlo Alley. "There's no shade out here unless you're under the trees. There's not really anything to do other than walk around."
After Richmond Public Schools declined to include the playground renovation in their budget for two years running, Chimborazo partnered with the nonprofit Richmond Ed Fund to launch an independent fundraising campaign.
"It's not something we can't save up to do ourselves, we need the community in order to do a project this size and this magnitude," Watkins said.
Chimborazo parent and PTA member Denise Hicks emphasized safety as a primary concern with the current asphalt surface.
"About $170,000 of that is the play structure, 40% of that is the surfacing," Hicks said. "You really need that like soft pad underneath so that kids don't fall and hurt themselves where as here we're working with asphalt."
The school serves families from Fulton to Church Hill neighborhoods, and Hicks said the outdated exercise equipment needs replacement.
"We have already raised $4500 with just our parent community here," Hicks said.
The fundraising effort has inspired current students who want to create opportunities for younger children.
"I know that everyone even in fifth grade are like, I wish we had that playground. So I want to make it so that the kids younger than us can have that," Alley said.
Watkins praised his students' dedication and said they deserve equal opportunities for recreation.
"Amazing students, they work so hard here each and every day and they deserve to play hard too and this doesn't really allow them to do that," Watkins said. "But to improve the community space, I'm asking for community involvement."
The Richmond Ed Fund has established a fundraising page for community members and organizations interested in supporting the playground project.
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