Volunteers Still Needed

As the evening grew darker, the flood lights illuminated the playground rebuild at Frank Fullerton Memorial Park.

A line of teens pushing wheelbarrows filled with mulch made its way around the playground, under structures and through a maze of volunteers. The mulch was dumped for volunteers to rake into place and the process began again.

"There's tons of mulch to get down," said Keith Omlor, chair of Friends of Fullerton. Omlor said the mulch needs to be 12 inches deep throughout the playground.

Before the playground can be opened to children, there is still a lot of work to get done.

"We still need volunteers," said Omlor. In addition to getting the mulch down, there is still light construction, painting, detail work, plus clean up to be done before Sunday's 5 p.m. opening ceremony.

The roofs will need to be put on the towers and castles. The roofs, Omlor said, are heavy and will require quite a few people to move into place.

"There's a lot of work to do, but it's attainable with bodies," he said.

Volunteers were working until 10 p.m. Saturday night and would be back on site by 8 a.m. Sunday.

"Hopefully we can get the people out here," Omlor said. "If we're light, it will push us back and the kids won't be able to play until Monday."

Still, Omlor is optimistic everything will be done in time for the opening.

"Leathers (and Associates) will walk through and do the final inspection," said Omlor. "5 p.m. is our goal."