CHESTERVILLE – The Chesterville Recreation Committee is celebrating the completion of the playground located at the David Archer Town Hall thanks to the assistance of numerous community members and donors.
The idea for a playground began when Patricia Hastings started a petition to see if the Chesterville Recreation Committee could hold a special town meeting to vote in a playground with the use of some of the town’s undesignated funds and the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Funds. The Chesterville Select Board agreed to hold a special town meeting, and it was shortly voted in to build the playground on Sept. 1, 2022.
Chair of the Chesterville Recreation Committee Katlin Hilton also noted that there is not much for children to do in town, and Chesterville students go to three different schools which limits their ability to interact with one another and meet new friends.
“We wanted to bring the community together, to get children playing, and to do something good for the town and future generations,” Katlin Hilton said.
All of the equipment ordered for the playground arrived by the first week of June, which has helped the committee with their goal of completing the park in time for the summer. The playground includes a play structure, a slide, monkey bars, and a four-bay swing set which was donated as a contribution to the playground in memory of Chesterville resident and war veteran John Gee. Two of the swings are toddler swings, and two are regular swings. The committee was also able to build a sandbox using leftover materials.
The playground was built by members of the community on July 21 and 22, and the North Chesterville Extension Homemakers dropped off food and coffee for everyone assisting with the construction of the playground.
Selectman Eric Hilton stated that during the building process, a supervisor was sent out to assist with the construction of the playground and he was so impressed with the way people worked together and were able to build most of the playground during the first day of construction.
“It was just such an enlightening experience, and everybody felt the love and community in those two days,” Eric Hilton said. “Everybody in our local residence really stepped up to come together, and that’s been the most beautiful thing to see.”
The majority of the funds used to support the project were raised from a variety of fundraisers and from donations. All of the groundwork was donated by Don Oliver Excavation. The Chesterville Recreation Committee also held a fundraiser in July to help cover the cost of woodchips and raised approximately $1,700, as well as a bottle drive that raised $1,200. Skowhegan savings bank and the homemakers club each donated $500, and Katlin Hilton stated that many individuals would come in to donate $100 to go towards completing the playground.
“Every day since it’s been built, there’s been at least five to ten kids here with their parents playing on it and it’s been so great to see,” Katlin Hilton said.
The Chesterville Recreation Committee will be celebrating Family Fun Day at the playground on Saturday, August 19 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and will include a ribbon cutting ceremony to officially open the playground to the public. The ceremony will also include the unveiling of a sign featuring the names of the largest donors who contributed to the project. The ribbon cutting will be followed by the North Chesterville Extension Homemakers’ Chicken BBQ.
“Even though the adults came together to build this for the children, I believe that the building and organizing of it was so healthy for all the adults in this town to come together for the children,” Eric Hilton said. “The best reward out of all of this is to see the adults really do something for the future generations.”
