By Pepper Fisher

PORT ANGELES – The community build of the Generation II Dream Playground in Port Angeles has been very successful thanks to the hundreds of volunteers, and now it’s time for the final push to get it finished.

The results so far show that the process was well planned, but those 4 days of record-breaking temperatures at the end of June were something no one could have foreseen.

“We didn’t quite get done because the heatwave really decimated our volunteer numbers the first week, and understandably people stayed home for their own health and safety so, it puts us behind by about a day and a half. So we didn’t quite get done.”

That’s Dream Playground Foundation President Steve Methner, who called to say that it’s time for one last lap this weekend to get to the finish line.

“It is definitely time to rally the troops. We are doing a small version of the big build all over again, this coming weekend. So we’ll be out there for three shifts from 8, a.m. to 8 p.m., and we’re actually flying the architect and construction consultants back out to get it certified on Saturday by the time we’re done. So it is definitely an all-hands-on-deck kind of situation, but we’re very confident we can get done and we may even have time, because of the delay, to work on some really neat finishing details.”

Methner says the only real setback, thanks to the heat wave, is that opening day has been pushed back to the second or third week in August to give contractors time to install the play surface.

Again, the final team effort is this Friday and Saturday. Skilled and unskilled workers are needed, with lunch and dinner provided, and the weather promises to be perfect.

“I think we’re definitely in for a treat and I think this playground is one of those seeds of excitement and hope for the future that we really are creating for ourselves in town here.”

Sign up to volunteer at padreamplayground.org.

(Photo courtesy of Dream Playground Facebook page)