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Volunteers needed: Many hands will make light work at Dotsero playground project

Heavy equipment completes site work in anticipation of the Dotsero Mobile Home Park KaBOOM! playground build day set for Saturday, June 30. Volunteers are needed to construct the new structure in a single day.
Special to the Daily

Want to get involved?

What: KaBoom! Dotsero Mobile Home Park playground build day.

When: Saturday, June 30; 8:30 a.m. kickoff ceremony followed by construction until 3 p.m., when a ribbon cutting is planned.

Where: 4675 U.S. Highway 6, Gypsum.

More information: Anyone who would like to volunteer can visit wecmrd.org/kaboom to fill out the online form or contact Susie Davis from Our Community Foundation at susie@ourcommunityfoundation.org or 970-977-1093.

DOTSERO — There isn’t anything about the current Dotsero Mobile Home Park play area that invites fun.

But that’s about to change.

Community volunteers will join forces with representatives from the Colorado Health Foundation, Western Eagle County Metropolitan Recreation District and an organization called KaBoom! on Saturday, June 30, to transform an empty site into a kid-designed, state-of-the-art playground. The park-building event will take just six hours, and when the volunteers’ work is done, the new playground will help make play the easy choice for kids and families in Dotsero.



In May, kids from the surrounding community came together to draw their dream playground. The playground is based on their drawings and will provide more than 240 kids in Dotsero with a great, safe place to play.

“Play is essential to physical, creative, cognitive, social and emotional development,” said Christina Perez, KaBoom! project director. “Currently, the Dotsero Mobile Home Park community has no public park or play space within walking distance and no funds available to build one. The project partners believe that kids and families deserve a safe place to play and recreate — this park will award that opportunity.”

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Along with a kid-friendly playground, the park will also include a fitness station circuit for adults to ensure kids and their caregivers can play together in one place.

But this ambitious project needs help and it is time for volunteers to get involved.

Many hands

The Saturday, June 30, build day requires 200-plus volunteers to bring the playground to fruition.

“Right now, we are at about half of the volunteers we need, with about 100 people signed up so far,” said Scott Robinson, marketing and communications manager for WECMRD. Roughly 30 of those volunteers are residents of the Dotsero Mobile Home Park. Additionally, the mobile home park residents have agreed to donate bottled water for the park build volunteers.

Skilled and nonskilled volunteers are needed for build day, Robinson said. Some volunteers will be operating power tools, while others will be handing out lunches and water. He noted that volunteers just need to show up wearing closed-toe shoes and recommended they bring work gloves, sunscreen and a good attitude.

“Many hands make light work, right?” Robinson said. “And build day is going to be a lot more than just work. There will be activities for the kids and families and live music. Plus we are providing food.”

Along with the Saturday build day push, Robinson noted volunteers are needed for prep work at the site on Thursday, June 28, and Friday, June 29.

“It’s more difficult to find the people to go out to Dotsero on a work day, but there’s actually going to be some fun stuff going on those days,” Robinson said.

He noted the playground partners are reaching out to local businesses to see if they will send employees to the site as part of their respective community service programs.

Playground partners

Along with WECMRD, the Dotsero Mobile Home Park features the efforts of state and national partners.

The Colorado Health Foundation said the Dotsero playground is a great example of its locally focused work, designed to harness ideas that are generated at the local level and reflect the community’s needs. The Foundation’s mission involves health outreach for all Coloradans by engaging with communities across the state through investment, policy and advocacy, learning and capacity building. For more information, visit http://www.colorado health.org.

KaBoom! is a national nonprofit dedicated to giving all kids — especially those living in poverty — the childhood they deserve through great, safe places to play. KaBoom! has collaborated with partners to build or improve more than 17,000 play spaces, engaged more than 1.5 million volunteers and served more than 9 million kids. To learn more, visit kaboom.org.


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