Ben’s Red Swings Playground needs update

Ben’s Red Swings Community Playground is no ordinary playground. The iconic site was built with the ideas and hands of many children and parents throughout the community and all for one very special reason. But now, the playground operators are looking to add a bathroom and they are asking for the public’s help to fund it.

Every day, an average of 50 kids and their parents visit the playground, but the only option when nature calls is one of these of porta-potties. Just part of why many want full-fledged restrooms.

Paige Agolphi loves to visit the park and she tells 47 ABC, “I think that would be really great for the children because I do not like going in there.”

Another major issue is the resilient surfacing on the playground itself needs to be fortified. The total project will cost about $110,000. So organizers are turning to a familiar source of goodwill, the community.

47 ABC spoke with public relations coordinator Kelly Shannahan and he tells us,”Salisbury is a wonderful, wonderful community with an incredible heart for the community and the people in this community are the best anywhere you’ll find in the world.”

And if you need proof, look no further than the original playground project. It began tragically when 2 year old Ben Layton was diagnosed with leukemia in the year 2000. Two years later, he passed away. Before he died, he told his parents that he imagined himself as an angel with red wings in heaven. That’s when his parents decided to build a park in his honor. The community rallied and donations poured in, both private and corporate. As for the designs?

Shannahan tells 47 ABC, “We went around to the elementary schools in town and had all the elementary school kids help us design the playground and tell us what they wanted to see in their playground.”

Those ideas were sent to a designer and then in May 2004, they broke ground. 4,000 locals pitched in to build it. It took them just one week.

Shannahan tells 47 ABC, “It’s the perfect example of what we can do positively in our community when we put our minds to it.”

More than 10 years later they’re doing it again. To raise money for the upgrades, folks can buy a ceramic tile to personalize that will go on the walls of the bathrooms. Donors can also choose to personalize a fencepost. Just two more ways that the community can be a part of Ben’s Red Swings as much as the playground is a part of the community.

If you would like to purchase a ceramic tile, fence post, or you’d simply like to donate, you can head to the community foundation of the eastern shore’s website which is: http://cfes.org/brs/