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Elementary School Raising Money For New Playground

NESQUEHONING — The principal at Panther Valley Elementary School in Nesquehoning is trying to raise money to get the school a new playground. It does not ...

NESQUEHONING -- The principal at Panther Valley Elementary School in Nesquehoning is trying to raise money to get the school a new playground. It does not have one.

"It's kind of like we're outside playing with our friends," student Brooklynn Mika said. "Sometimes we kind of get bored."

Newswatch 16 sat down with a group of third graders from the school. After this year, they'll be going to Panther Valley Intermediate without ever having had a playground to use at recess.

"At recess, all we can really do is play like basketball and hang out with our friends and play tag," student Jaelynn Kreitz said.

The school's principal wants to make sure all of his future students get to play on a playground. He won a $15,000 grant from Kaboom and Dr Pepper Snapple Group to go toward the project, but that's not enough. A playground will cost the school around $50,000. Right now, the school needs about $20,000 to reach its goal. The district is asking local businesses to donate to the project.

"We spend a lot of time talking about PSSA scores, but if a child isn't healthy overall, if they're not having opportunities to burn energy, learn cooperative play skills -- these are all life skills that children need," Panther Valley Elementary School Principal Robert Palazzo said.

The school hopes to build the playground this summer. It will need volunteers to help. They hope to have it ready for the first day of school.

If you'd like to donate to the playground project or volunteer to help build the playground, you can call the school at (570) 669-9411 or contact them through their Facebook page. To learn more about Kaboom, click here.

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