Palouse playset nears construction, four years of fundraising pays off

For four and a half years, mothers in Palouse sweated away to earn the $36,000 it will take to purchase a pre-school friendly playground set for the Palouse city park.

Bake sale after bake sale and silent auction after silent auction, the unsung mothers of Palouse amassed the needed funds for their toddlers to run wild.

“I’m very proud of this,” said Shelly Goertzen, leader of the Little People’s Park Project.

This summer, the fruit of their labor (the playground equipment, not their babies) will be constructed at the city park.

The set of equipment measures 22 feet by 19 feet and will be on a 34 feet by 34 feet “fall zone” of soft bark.

The eventual set will have three slides, two big tunnels, a rock wall, and several play panels that include musical instruments. It is specially designed to be fun for children ages two to five. More than 30 children at a time can play on it.

Goertzen spends little time focusing on her group’s efforts, instead shifting credit to several year’s of donations from the annual Haunted Palouse. That funding, combined with a $12,000 state grant, pushed them to the finish line for funding, she said.

“The Little People’s Park Project is a true testament to how much supporters and volunteers can do. I don’t think there’s any other way to say it. Look what they’ve done,” said Palouse mayor Michael Echanove.

He added, “It just warms your heart what volunteers can do.”

The group received the grant from the state Recreation Conservation office- city councilman Mike Milano helped them with the grant application and visited Olympia to advocate for their park. The Little People’s Park Project is a sub-entity with the Palouse Chamber of Commerce.

“We’re just extremely excited because we finally get to order it,” Goertzen said.

The entire structure is handicap accessible for children with disabilities.

“It’s just a really nice little play set. It’s going to be positioned in the shady area of our park,” Goertzen said.

She and her friends became interested in the idea of playground equipment for younger children when they couldn’t find a good public facility for their children to romp.

Goertzen’s son Ransom was two years old at the time they began raising funds- finding him a place to play was largely her motivation to start the project, Goertzen said.

He’ll turn seven the same summer the equipment is installed.

At the Palouse city council meeting Feb. 23, the city approved a final bid from Northwest Playground Equipment for $26,400, one of six companies to make an offer on the project.

Northwest Playground was picked because Goertzen’s group liked their playground structure the most. Their bid includes installation and the bark beneath. While it was not the lowest bid, Goertzen said, but they were most impressed with the playground structure offered.

At that same council meeting, the city also approved a bid of $5,250 from Woltering Concrete to complete a pathway near the park. The funds will also come from the Little People’s project.