A playground to roam on

Danette Goulet

NEWPORT BEACH - With two grandchildren in kindergarten at Lincoln

Elementary School and three more on the way, a Newport Beach couple

decided to replace the rusty old playground with bright new equipment.

Just last month, the sand lot contained only a couple metal jungle

gyms, a balance beam and a slide.

Now, a month and nearly $20,000 later, children scamper over a bright

colorful monstrosity with three slides, a twirly pole, a mountain, a

bridge, climbing areas and more.

All of it, thanks to George and Barbara Woods.

“It’s pretty spectacular stuff,” George Woods said. “As much as I hate

plastic, this stuff is the way to go.”

The children couldn’t agree more.

“I like the big monkey bars and the slide and that’s it,” said

5-year-old Max Stone. “Because there was not that much slides before.”

The Wood’s children went to Lincoln when it was still a middle school.

Now their children’s children roam those same grounds.

So, the philanthropic couple decided it was a charity well worth their

money.

“It was kind of a family idea,” said Suzanne Woods, the couple’s

daughter-in-law.

She and her sister-in-law, Erica, who have children in the upper

grades and in kindergarten, had been talking about what terrible

disrepair the old kindergarten playground equipment was in.

“Some of it was rusty and had rough edges, some of it was kind of

pathetic,” she said. “It was second-hand stuff from Eastbluff. Some of it

belonged to Eastbluff when it first opened.”

The two women had joked with the Woods, suggesting that they should

buy the school some new equipment.

The Woods decided in was actually a good idea.

“We believe in our public schools,” said Barbara Woods. “We did our

part too when our children were in school.”

So they gave the two younger women the means and let them run with the

idea.

“George gave us a budget and the go-ahead in September,” Suzanne Woods

said. “We worked with the playground guy, then brought the ideas to the

principal.”

Having been a kindergarten teacher for years, the principal, Barbara

Rothman-Haddock, had a few suggestions.

“We were really looking at building physical skills and at

student-safety issues,” Rothman-Haddock said.

The Woods were thanked for their gift in a dedication ceremony Friday

morning by students and staff.