(Photo on right: About 60 students designed their own playground in Lindo Park Elementary in Lakeside. Ana Tintocalis / KPBS )
About two months ago, students at Lindo Park Elementar y in Lakeside got a big job: design your dream playground. The result is a whimsical new play area imagined by kids, but built by the community. KPBS Reporter Ana Tintocalis has more.
About sixty pint-size architects put their crayons to paper and designed the purple and yellow playground. Principal Ginger Van Zant says the kids wanted something new.
Van Zant: Well, the one before was one of the really, really old ones -- just a metal playground. And we already had to pull some equipment out of it because it was deemed unsafe. And so we had very little equipment here and it wasn't a lot of fun.
Michalski: We got four belt swings, we got a spiral slide, we got this great spinning climber thing for the kids to jump on, it's a really great playground structure.
Michalski: The kids really wanted a tire swing, so I'm proud to say there is a tire swing right there for them. Albertsons and Savon kicked in most of the money to cover construction costs. School board member Twila Goldey hopes the play area gets students up and moving.
Goldey: Well first of all the kids need to have a safe place to play to exercise. We all know about the news about childhood obesity. They need to get outdoors.
Lindo Park Elementary is the center of the community here in Lakeside. Volunteers hope people young and old will have a sense of pride and ownership every time they visit the playground.
Ana Tintocalis, KPBS News.
