LCM playground build seeks 200 volunteers

Dave Rogers

For The Record

Two hundred community volunteers are needed to come together for six hours Saturday, Nov. 8 – rain or shine -- to assemble from scratch a new kid-designed playground for Mauriceville Elementary School, 20040 FM 1130.

“This is probably the most organized thing I’ve ever been a part of,” Carie Broussard, MVE principal, said.

“KaBoom! is the project manager, and basically, they don’t send a crew, just a project manager and two or three crew chiefs.

“We supply the 200 volunteers. We feed them breakfast and lunch.”

The original Mauriceville Elementary playground that thousands of students had used for years was totally decimated by the same Tropical Harvey flood waters that shut down four of six campuses in Little Cypress-Mauriceville school district for all or most of the 2017-18 school year.

Broussard’s students are still attending classes in portable buildings. The principal said the whole rebuilt campus should be ready for move-in by spring break.

The Rebuild Texas Fund, begun by Texas computer pioneer Michael Dell to help with Harvey recovery efforts, and KaBoom!, a national non-profit dedicated to giving all children safe places to play, are joining with volunteers from Mauriceville Elementary and the surrounding area to ensure kids can get back to the business of childhood.

Registration and breakfast for volunteers is from 7:45 a.m. to 8:30 a.m., with work to run from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., with lunch served in shifts. A ribbon-cutting ceremony is set for 2:30 p.m.

Mauriceville Elementary School is a pre-kindergarten through fifth grade campus that is the heart of a small rural community. Many of the town’s larger events are held at the campus and generations of families have attended the school, so there is a strong bond between MVE and the citizens of Mauriceville.

In October, kids from the surrounding community came together to draw their dream playground. The 40-foot by 65-foot playground is based off their drawings and will provide more than 1,300 kids in Orange with a great, safe place to play following the devastation of Harvey.

Rebuild Texas Fund and KaBOOM! have partnered to serve communities affected by Harvey.

It will be the ninth build by the partners. Overall, the partnership will lead 15 community-designed playground projects, and award 20 creative play products – Imagination Playground™ and Rigamjig – to organizations across 41 counties in Southeast Texas, providing new opportunities to play for more than 87,500 kids over the next generation.

The Rebuild Texas Fund works alongside organizations within the Harvey-impacted communities that are making an impact in the following six focus areas: community and economic development; health; housing; education and childcare; transportation and workforce; and capital for rebuilding small businesses. The Rebuild Texas Fund will continue to fund projects and organizations within these areas through the end of 2019.

More information about the Rebuild Texas Fund is available at www.rebuildtx.org.

KaBOOM! inspires communities to make play the easy choice. KaBOOM! has collaborated with partners to build or improve more than 17,000 playspaces, engaged more than 1.5 million volunteers and served over 9 million kids. To learn why play matters for all kids, visit kaboom.org and join the conversation at twitter.com/kaboom, facebook.com/kaboom and instagram.com/kaboom.