Be A Believer
Enter to win the Great Play Giveaway
By Christine Schaffran
When the call came, Brian McKenna was skeptical.
The superintendent of parks for the Rolling Meadows Park in Illinois had entered to win a Nucleus/Intensity playground valued at almost $30,000 from BCI Burke, but he forgot. When a representative from the company told him he won the Great Play Giveaway sponsored by Parks & Rec Business and Camp Business magazines, he didn’t believe it.
“It was like Christmas had come early,” he says.
The new equipment replaces a play set that had been in Countryside Park for more than 18 years. It was nearing the end of its life cycle, but there was no money in the budget for upgrades. So when the annual Great Play Giveaway was announced, McKenna took a chance.
“I’m a believer now,” he admits.
A Coordinator Steps Forward
The installation of the equipment took on a life of its own when Jaynth Kassana, a local Boy Scout, offered to oversee the operation.
“His brother did his Eagle Scout [project] in that park, so he had a connection to his brother doing it,” McKenna shares.
Kassana first coordinated a fundraiser with local fast-food restaurant, Culver’s, which donated a portion of their proceeds from a particular night.
He then organized volunteers to be at the site for five days to help with the actual installation. He worked tirelessly to provide food, refreshments, gloves, goggles, ear plugs, and any other equipment the volunteers needed to get the job done.
“He had to know what was next and assign people to those tasks,” McKenna says. “And he worked with our experts to make sure everything was installed properly according to [industry] standards.”
And when it came to standards, McKenna says the playground manufacturer had a few of their own that impressed him and made him a believer in the company.
“I’ve dealt with so many playground manufacturers and it’s always a crap shoot what condition it’s going to arrive in,” he shares. “But the way Burke designs their freight boxes makes it impossible to damage the equipment when you’re pulling it off the truck.”
He added that their process eliminates the need for clamps and uses a more precise method to measure where the deck goes according to the blueprint.
“With Burke’s innovative [direct-bolt connectors], you save a boatload of time and labor and the accuracy is so much greater,” he says.
After some weather setbacks, the project was completed shortly before Thanksgiving in 2019.
Eye-Popping Equipment
“It’s highly visible,” McKenna says of the new equipment. “We wanted eye-catching colors. We didn’t want it to blend in, we wanted it to really pop.”
Since the equipment has been installed, McKenna says there’s just one thing left to do—continue to “add more freestanding pieces.”
McKenna says swings were added right away to the package because it was too much of a critical component to leave them out.
“Of course, parents want to know why we didn’t add more,” he says with a chuckle. “We’ll continue to work with Burke to keep adding things.”
The contest runs from February 15 to May 15. To enter, visit www.northstarpubs.com/greatplay.