Hannah Williams
Playground Is Open -- Enjoy!

News - August 24, 2001

Work Is Done -- Time for fun

WAYLAND, MA, August 24, 2001 – The work is done and it’s time for fun at the Hannah Williams Playground. A rededication ceremony will be held Sunday, Sept. 9 with festivities beginning at 3 pm.

The free event will feature music by The Daddios of Wayland and a series of fun activities, food, and balloons. A brief ceremony will be held to recognize contributors and volunteers.

“It’s almost a year to the date that we began our rescue effort,” noted Cliff Kolovson, organizer of the Friends of Hannah Williams Playground. His small band of residents rallied public support, raised the funds, organized volunteers, and engineered some dramatic repairs – all in eight weeks to reopen the playground before Thanksgiving 2000.

“Kids and their families have been enjoying this park and playground for the last nine months after 18 months without it. Seeing swarms of people, in both good weather and bad, makes me feel wonderful,” Kolovson said.

The work continued this spring (more wood chips, wood sealant, and mounting some apparatus) and through the summer. “Finally, the engraved brick walkway has been installed, and the new fencing with gates also are in place,” Kolovson said.

“We’ll still have a few things to add this fall (more picnic tables and two benches), but it’s quite the different place even since the start of the summer,” he noted.

“We’re just lucky,” Kolovson said. “Our play structure actually was in pretty solid shape, and the safety study commissioned by the town gave us nearly perfect instructions of what to do.

“Three nearby towns with similar structures built by the same company each tore down their playgrounds in the last year,” said Kolovson. He added emphatically, “ours now is very safe, and has a chance of lasting 5-7 and maybe even 10 more years.”

More than 250 people helped in the effort to repair, improve and bring the Hannah Williams playground back to life. More than $40,000 was raised to support the project, more than double the amount initially estimated would be required.

“People and organizations here were very generous. Very early on we knew we had the funds to make the minimum safety repairs. As usual, we found it would be more expensive than planned, but we also did more extensive repair and replacement than had been planned,” Kolovson said.
“We also were able to make some special improvements that were frequently requested,” he said. “We’re paying for an on-site toilet and we installed new fencing and a gate at the entry to keep little kids from wandering off.”

The Friends of the Hannah Williams Playground hired a professional company to apply the wood sealant that will protect the structure against the elements. This minimized the downtime and ensured the best protection. It’s hoped that repeat treatments will be needed only every other year instead of annually.

Since the “Friends” group will continue to make repairs and improvements and be responsible for wood sealant treatments, fundraising will continue. There are still T-shirts (long- and short-sleeved) and Whiz rings available. All contributions are tax deductible. Donations should be made to the Friends of the Hannah Williams Playground.

For more information, call organizer Cliff Kolovson at 508-655-2957.

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1. We continue to accept donations for the long-term maintenance of the play structure -- make checks payable to Friends of the Hannah Williams Playground; mail to 26 Garden Path, Wayland, MA 01778.
2. Buy a T-shirt -- both long-sleeve and short-sleeve now available

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