Rotary project saves Long Island playground for kids overseas
The Rotary Club of Murray Bridge has big plans for equipment which was recently replaced at a local park.
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Kids living in Murray Bridge and around the world will benefit from the installation of a new playground at Long Island Reserve.
For locals, the appeal of the colourful new play equipment – pictured below – is obvious.
But kids overseas will reap the benefits, too, thanks to the Rotary Club of Murray Bridge.
The old play equipment which used to be at the reserve has been packed up and stored in a shed at Rotarian Sue Foster's place, and will be shipped overseas and put back together in a community where it is needed.
Ms Foster said Australian regulations prevented play equipment from being reused once it was moved.
It would be a shame to let it go to waste.
A working group dismantled the equipment, glad-wrapped it – a requirement before it is shipped – and transported it away.
The parts which are still safe to use will eventually be shipped off to an as-yet unknown destination, or perhaps several.
The Rotary Overseas Recycled Playground project started as an initiative of the Flemington-Kensington club in Victoria, which first answered a call for a playground from a girls' school in Sri Lanka.
Rotarians across Australia have now sent more than 50 playgrounds to nations including Timor Leste, the Phillippines and Tanzania.
- More information: www.rotaryflemington.org.au.
