CLC Students Safe at Play Thanks to Thousands in Donations

A new playground is taking shape at the in Port Washington, following hard work from the community and a generous donation from one grandmother.  

“We’ve been involved with the school since it opened,” said Shirli Flack, president of Allied Insulation Supply Co. in Milwaukee. Out of her 19 grandchildren, 10 went to CLC growing up.

Issues arose with the surfacing of the playground, something that eventually prompted Flack's donation.

“When the playground was put in (in 1992), the most efficient, safest-fall surfacing was pea gravel,” said Gail Freitag, executive director of CLC. Plus, unlike sand or woodchips, the pea gravel wouldn’t freeze together in the winter time.

But, over the years, the pea gravel turned into a problem.

“The kids had been taking the pea gravel and eating it and putting it in their nose and putting it in their ears," Freitag said. "There were several medical incidents where it had to be removed.”

A few years ago, CLC had a rubber surface installed in the toddler play area, but quickly learned that the black surface would rub off on children when they crawled around on it on a warm day.

The news of health issues involving the playground concerned Flack and drove her to make a donation towards the remodeling project.

“I knew from family members that it really needed to be done,” she said. Flack donated $10,000 of her own money for the project.  

“I had my company make an equal donation in honor of those 10 grandkids, (that attended CLC) so that they got phase one (completed),” She said. “It’s very, very important that it’s safe.”

Workers broke ground on the first phase of the project June 6, and recently finished installing a brand new surface in the preschool play area. It now rests on an artificial turf that stays green, fluffy and won’t rub off.

“If it does get damaged, you can cut it out and repair it,” Freitag said.

Parents and family members of the CLC staff worked to remove the surface, level the ground, put up retaining walls and install the new surface. Several days of very hot weather in June and July slowed down the progress of updating the 3,000 square foot surface.

Flack said she is excited to see a more complete playground in the months to come.

“The other phases … are going to add luxury to the children’s lives with the things they’re going to be exposed to and play with,” she said.

A water play area will be relocated to a different part of the playground in the spring.

“We have a science and a greenhouse area that we want to put up. The kids like to do gardening,” Freitag said. “We have the gardening area on the side of the building and we’re going to take that and move it back on the playground; they can water the plants and pick the flowers or the vegetables whenever they want.”

In addition to Flack’s donations, numerous donations from parents and the community came in following fundraisers such as golf outings, bake sales and brat frys. The reconstruction of the preschool play area has cost a total of $41,808.

All of the hard work to improve the playground from the , which was presented on Nov. 16.

“They have been so instrumental in growing their business and taking care of the little kiddies, we just knew they were the perfect recipient for it,” said Dooley Vogel, executive director of the chamber.

“They started out with a playground that was attractive, but it didn’t serve the needs of the children. They saw the work that was being done at and they recognized they could bring those attributes to their playground,” Vogel said.

Today, Flack has three great-grandchildren that attend the daycare and two more due in 2012, who will also attend CLC. She thought her donations to the playground project would “start the ball rolling” for others to get involved.

Freitag said because of Flack’s donations, it allowed CLC to do certain things properly.

"It helped us do it the right way — to be able to call in outside people and pay them to do things that really needed to be done with bigger equipment," she said. "It turned out beautiful when you look at it."