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Linda Samland, chair of the Sidway Playground Committee, holds a sample engraved brick on sale to raise funds for a new playground at the school. (Photo by Larry Austin)
Linda Samland, chair of the Sidway Playground Committee, holds a sample engraved brick on sale to raise funds for a new playground at the school. (Photo by Larry Austin)

Sidway Elementary School on cusp of reaching goal for new playground

Sat, Apr 20th 2019 07:00 am

Sidway Elementary School’s playground committee is in the home stretch of fundraising for a new playground at the Baseline Road school.

The committee is hoping its next fundraiser – a brick paver sale – will put it over the top of its $170,000 goal by autumn.

Families and community members can purchase an engraved brick that will form a walkway to the playground, reports Sidway Principal Denise Dunbar.

The committee has been fundraising since the fall of 2017, said Linda Samland, chair of the Sidway Playground Committee, holding such events as the Monster Mash, with a Halloween theme, for two years; the Holiday Walk craft show; coffee and greeting card sales; the Kickoff to Summer party with a Chiavetta’s barbecue; and raffles for a jet ski, snowblower and Buffalo Bills tickets.

“This is hopefully our final push,” Dunbar said of a brick sale fundraiser.

The plan is to pave a walkway to a new, state-of-the-art, ADA-compliant playground that would replace the current playground that the committee says has seen better days.

“It’s 26 years old and I have already had to remove one piece and replace one piece,” Dunbar said. “And the costs of just one color stripe on the rainbow slide – everybody knows the rainbow slide – was over $1,000 for one piece of plastic, and it took about six weeks, eight weeks for it to come in.”

“It’s really just not worth putting any more money into the that one,” Samland said of the old playground.

Dunbar said playgrounds “are either built by a capital project or by fundraising. PTA can’t really be responsible because of all the liability, and because there’s so much money, they’re not really aligned in school district budget.”

Bricks come in 4-by-4, 8-by-8 and 12-by-12 sizes and range in price from $100 to $510.

To order a brick online, visit https://polarengraving.com/Sidwayplaygroundfund. Or, pick up a form at Sidway School and mail it to Sidway Elementary, c/o Linda Samland, 2451 Baseline Road, Grand Island NY 14072.

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