Volunteers Needed to Clean Up Vandalism at Kids Connection

Volunteers are needed this weekend to help clean up and perform some maintenance at the Kids Connection playground at Franksville Park.

For the past 13 years, families both near and far have enjoyed the Kids Connection playground at the Caledonia-Mount Pleasant joint park on Northwestern Avenue. But now, the equipment is starting to show some signs of aging, and vandalism is taking its toll.

Mount Pleasant resident Juliet Primuth led the effort in 2000 to get the playground funded - to the tune of $230,000 - and constructed with a veritable army of 1,800 volunteers. 

"The playground was constructed in 2000 and now it's 13 years later and we need help," she said. "Some vandalism has occurred and we hope to get new panels for the history pavilion and repair things that are damaged."    

Donations are also needed to help replenish the playground's maintenance fund. Out of a $20,000 maintenance account fund balance created when Kids Connection was built, only $991 remains. 

"Over the past 13 years the villages have not contributed any money to the playground maintenance," Primuth noted. "We realize the budget constraints in the community. (So) we need to raise more money specifically for the Kids Connection playground."

Most of the $991 left in the Kids Connection account will pay for new wood chips required of an ADA accessible playground and some surfaces need resealing.

Primuth has a fundraising goal of $20,000 this year to pay for the upkeep at Kids Connection. Donations can be made directly to Village of Caledonia, Kids Connection fund, 6922 Nicholson Rd., Caledonia, WI 53108.

Work on the playground is scheduled from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. If anyone would like to volunteer their time and elbow grease to the playground, the Volunteer Center of Racine is taking names: www.volunteercenterofracine.org.