VOLUNTEER
& CONTACT

February 27, 2008

Persons to be heard:

Greta Perkins: Greta presented us with an idea called “Focus on Kids”. With the recent death of her son she was inspired to start an artistic foundation in his memory. She would like to have the first project be with the kids of the area taking pictures of the playground build day and present an art show of the results at a later date. Lots of ideas were tossed around. This is just the beginning of the whole idea and is very open to thoughts and comments on how to make it successful. We will continue to be in touch with Greta as the build comes closer.

Phenie Miller from Alaska USA Credit Union came to personally present a donation check for $500 to the committee. Thank you!

Ruth Wood was here to update everyone on the Borough happenings. We are still awaiting approval from the Borough to use the property north of the Library to build our playground. She wrote a letter to John Duffy – the borough manager to solicit help in the process as we are getting nearer to build day. Mr. Duffy has agreed to a teleconference that will take place Monday the 3rd. We will specifically be asking what steps we need to take to get on the property.

Financial update: Charlie reported that we have earned $69,000 to date. He also updated us on the Rasmussen challenge grant that has been approved. They will match dollar for dollar what we raise up to $25,000 starting March 1st – April 30th . This is great news and will get us very close to raising what we need to complete the project. Charlie will work on updating the letters to use to contact potential donors.

Art Meeting: An art meeting was held last Monday. Anita reported that it was a fun meeting with lots of cool ideas tossed around. The colors for all the plastic components (slides and swings) were decided on. There will be a train mural worked into the design from the train engine that the kids will get to paint. Ideas for the art walls behind the stage were discussed as well as designs for several of the benches.

Site: A few changes to the playground layout were made: the music chimes and spring toy will be removed and the swing set will be shifted slightly to work with the lay of the landscape. Leon Smith has been in town to work on the Planet Earth Playscapes portion of our design. He attended the art meeting and has spent time walking and flagging the property – outlining the Leathers’ section and defining the boundaries he has to work with. There was discussion about moving the build date for the Planet Earth Playscapes portion so as not to coincide with the Leathers’ build as originally thought. Thoughts and ideas about dirt work and needed volunteer numbers were talked about. It was decided that we will do Leon ’s build in two phases. A portion will be started during build week this June and it will be completed in September. More details will be worked out later. The question of actually needing a perimeter fence was brought up. Discussed was why we wanted it in the first place – safety concerns from the road and railroad. A decision was made to hold off on ordering and planning for a fence for now. We will revisit the issue when it is more clear what the placement of the playground looks like on this piece of property.

Next fundraiser - There is still excitement about having a barn dance in late March or April sometime. We do not have a commitment from a band however. So no date was set and no further plans discussed. We will definitely need help organizing once we do get a date set.

Organization day - Monday March 10th . This is the next big step in our planning for the build. Laura has made the schedule for the day and will e-mail it out to all the committee members. There are specific times that each committee head will need to meet with the Leathers’ rep. At the end of the day there is a meeting with the whole committee and a pot luck dinner after. We still need a few volunteers to help with set up at Whole Wheat Radio. If you have any questions or would like to help please call Laura 733-1970 or Karey 733-7677.

The next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday March 12th 6:30 at the Roadhouse.