Seven Generations Begins Playground Construction

On Aug. 6, volunteers gathered at the back of the Seven Generations Charter School (SGCS) property on Minor Street in Emmaus with hopes of creating a functional playground for the school.

This date marked the first of a series of Saturday "work days" during which parents, teachers, and those interested in supporting the school could commit their time to the cause.

Work will continue until the job is completed, hopefully in time for the first day of school on Tues., Sept. 6.

With a minimal budget, the school's heavily encouraged theme of "reuse" was put into action as old rubber tires, tree stumps and mulch from Emmaus Borough's compost center were incorporated to build a formal playground for the children of SGCS.

"We have a partnership with some of the students at Lehigh University. They worked with the kids last year to develop a playground that's in-line with the vision of the school. And the kids gave a lot of input as to what they'd want to do. But we need some long-term planning in as far as getting the funding to build that in pieces," explained Dave Dougherty, who is heading up the playground project.

Dougherty said the focus for this year is building out a play surface that will scale to the structures they will ultimately put into place when they have the financial ability to do so.