Bluefield Daily Telegraph, Bluefield, WV

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February 7, 2010

‘Playgrounds aren’t cheap’: Local community competes for grant, asks for votes

By GREG JORDAN

PRINCETON — By logging on the Internet and clicking to vote, residents can help a Mercer County community create a new playground and social area for young and old alike.

David Brown of Pisgah Road said his community has been working to get the $65,000 needed to create a new playground. Fundraisers have already received contributions such as $5,000 from the Skewes Family Foundation, $10,000 from the Hugh I. Shott Jr. Foundation, and $1,000 from the Community Foundation of the Virginias.

“We’ve gotten a lot of support from the community also,” Brown said.

However, the project still needs more funding. To help find more sources of money, Brown took a grant writing class last fall with Christy Bailey of the Coal Heritage Highway Authority.

“If any grants become available, she usually e-mails me. She’s the one who called my attention to Pepsi Refresh,” he recalled.

In the Pepsi Refresh program, community projects across the country compete for $50,000 grants. The top 10 projects receiving the most votes will get the grants.

Some recreational facilities are in the Pisgah Road area’s children, but they are not always open.

“We’ve got Melrose School, but after school and on weekends, they close the playground down, so there’s really no place for them to play,” Brown said. “So we decided early last year that we’d try to get the funds together to put up a playground in the community.”

The project also has a site donated by the Pisgah Church. Plans call for putting in a play area for children ages 2 to 4-years-old, a basketball court and volleyball court for teens and adults, a horseshoe area and other facilities. The site already has a picnic shelter.

Of course, doing all of this will cost money.

“I didn’t realized how much this program was going to cost when I started it, but playgrounds aren’t cheap,” he said. “We’re looking, probably, at least at $65,000 to put this up. The Pepsi grant would really put us over the top.”

Area residents can vote by going to http://refresheverything.com/PisgahCommunity Playground.

“They can vote every day until Feb. 28,” Brown said. “We’re competing against big city and big municipalities, so this little area is really going to have put in the effort, but we’ve got faith.”

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