ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Saturday, March 2, 1996                TAG: 9603040012
SECTION: CURRENT                  PAGE: NRV-6 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
DATELINE: PEMBROKE
SOURCE: CLAYTON BRADDOCK SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES 

DRIVE FOR NEW PLAYGROUND IS BUILDING TOWARD GOAL

A community-wide project to build a special playground for Giles County children is only partly a matter of hammers, saws and nails. It's mostly about building confidence and community spirit in people.

Donations, slow at first, are picking up for the proposed Treasure Island playground, said Myra Williams and Sandy Jennings, two of the coordinators.

The $70,000 goal to build a new playground for children is a long way off, but it's moving closer, they said. So far, donations in materials, gifts and cash have reached $40,000.

A coin drive for cash is on tap today at three places - the Newport SuperValu store, the Pembroke Town Hall and D&A Auto in Pearisburg. Playground representatives will be on hand to accept the coins from 10 a.m. to noon. The coins will be weighed, and those who have collected the greatest weight in coins will receive a special prize.

The goal is to raise enough coins to match the $1,500 raised by two earlier class-sponsored penny drives at Eastern Elementary School.

Cash donations have been raised by special events, including an auction and a spaghetti dinner. At one event, five Virginia Tech football players came to support the proposed playground. Other penny drives will be organized in future school classes.

More than 300 people have signed up to help build the playground, which will require about 500 volunteers, the coordinators said.

The playground will include features chosen by students last October in a daylong planning session with a New York architect who specializes in such community-built projects.

When completed in May, the playground will include a scary tower, a castle maze, a lighthouse, a rubber bridge, a covered bridge, an alligator slide and much more. It will be surrounded by a fence of wooden pickets. Donations of $25 will earn the donor's name placed on a picket.

Donations include cash, gifts, material and supplies from a telephone company, doctors' offices, industries, restaurants and other food service establishments, art raffles, building supply companies, grocery stores and businesses.

A number of trees were also donated by horticulture students at Virginia Tech.

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