Back in the swing of things

HUNTINGTON BEACH -- The chains on the old swing set at St. Bonaventure

School used to rip 9-year-old Allison Stellecht’s white uniform shirt.

Sometimes it even pinched her skin. She eventually stopped playing there.

Now the third-grader has no worries about playing on the Huntington

Beach school’s playground equipment.

The colorful new set of slides, monkey bars, climbing poles and jungle

gyms have the kids excited after two years of nothing but an old swing

set to play on.

“It was pretty boring,” said Zachary Beko, 7. “The new playground’s

really good. I wish we had more of it.”

While the school’s 650 students also have a playing field, they

couldn’t play on it when the field was wet from rain or morning dew. So

they were left with the asphalt to play basketball, hopscotch, football,

kickball and volleyball.

The old slides and monkey bars were removed during the school’s

retrofitting two years ago and couldn’t be reinstalled because they were

too old and no longer safe. The swing set was the only piece of equipment

left, but that has also seen better days.

After the retrofitting was completed, finding money for new playground

equipment was a low priority, school officials said.

But things have changed.

A few weeks ago, new playground equipment arrived and was blessed by

Father Bruce Patterson.

“It’s way better than what we what we had before,” Allison said.

And it’s safe, said Principal Sister Carmel Lynch.

It took the parish two years to raise the $30,000 for the playground,

and the school and church are still trying to raise more funds to install

a permanent rubber surface beneath it, as well as for a new playground

set for the kindergartners.

St. Bonaventure will get more equipment when the parish finishes its

renovation and building extension and has raised the money for it,

officials said. The school is accepting donations for their projects.

Donors “will be remembered in prayers for the rest of their life,”

Lynch said.

FYI

Interested in finding out more about donating to the school? Call

(714) 846-2472.