Despite seeing all of their hard work go up in flames last year, area residents are moving ahead with plans to rebuild a burned-out community playground in Waverly.

Rebuilding of the playground outside the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Y of Central Maryland on 33rd Street is scheduled to take place from May 5 to May 10.

“We’re looking to get at least 3,000 volunteers. We’ll be working three shifts a day, from 8 in the morning until dark,” said Baltimore City Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke, whose 14th District includes the area. It will take about 200 people per shift, with three 4-hour shifts a day, to rebuild the playground, Clarke said.
Marisa Canino, president of Friends of Our Community Playground, a group in charge of the rebuilding effort, is asking volunteers to register well beforehand.

“We really like to plan in advance,” Canino said.

Volunteers can register online at www.stadiumplayground.org or can call 443-756-6198.

For insurance reasons, anyone working on the actual rebuilding must be at least 11. However, the group plans to have related projects for children 10 and under.

The playground was built in spring 2005 after years of organizing and fundraising by the community. It was destroyed in a one-alarm blaze that city fire officials suspect was arson.

The case remains unsolved.

The original playground cost $500,000. Most of the rebuilding costs are covered by insurance that the Y provides. In addition, Union Memorial Hospital and the State Farm Insurance agency each contributed $5,000 to cover the deductible.  

“We feel really lucky we’ve had those resources going into” the project, Canino said.

Friends of Our Playground hosted a spaghetti dinner fundraiser March 23, and raised $1,700, Canino said.

“We expected 120 (people), and we had at least three times that many,” she said. “The turnout was like nothing we could have imagined.”

The primary goal for the group’s fundraising right now is to raise money to maintain the playground after it is rebuilt.

The group also contributes money to help defray the Y’s expenses in having its staff supervise the playground when it is being heavily used. The group also pays for some Y memberships for some middle-school students who volunteer to supervise the playground.

The six months since a community rally in the Y parking lot the day after the fire in September of 2008 have passed quickly.

“To some extent we feel we’ve been swept away in a process driven by the community,” Canino said.

She praised the Y of Central Maryland for its help, saying, “It has been a really great partnership.”
Sara Milstein, chief marketing officer for the Y of Central Maryland, said there has been a sense of excitement to rebuild the playground since it burned down.

“Since the day of the fire there has been an outpouring of support,” Milstein said. “Phones were ringing off the hook.”

That excitement will continue and spill over to the actual rebuild, she said.

“To me it’s like the best-case scenario of community engagement and ownership.”

The playground is part of the Y’s outreach mission to surrounding communities.

“It's another tenet of what we do. We’re a charitable nonprofit,” Milstein said.

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