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This grant request is a cooperative project between the three Juneau rotary clubs - Juneau Glacier Valley Rotary, Juneau-Gastineau Rotary and Juneau Rotary. Juneau-Gastineau Rotary will take the lead with regard to project coordination of the district grant funds. Glacier Valley Rotary will take the lead with regard to project accounting and reporting. Juneau Rotary will take the lead on architectural and planning. Club members from all three clubs will be involved with implementation of the project.
The purpose of this project is to install playground equipment at Auke Bay Elementary School. The current playground equipment has been in place since the mid-80's. Several pieces have been removed due to safety concerns and the remaining equipment is old and insufficient to meet the needs of more than 300 students, PK-5th grade who attend the school.
During after-school and summer breaks, the school continues to be heavily used for special programs. All told, the Auke Bay Elementary playground will serve a large percentage of the 2,000 PK-5th grade students in Juneau.
Studies have shown that exercise is essential for children to learn, to maintain their health and to lead productive lives. Discipline data collected at Auke Bay Elementary shows that almost half of discipline referrals come from use of the playground, which is believed to stem from inadequate facilities for students to use.
The three Juneau Rotary Clubs began working with Auke Bay Elementary administrators and the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) several months ago. The working group has been reaching out to local businesses and PTA supporters to raise funds for this project. Our initial fundraising efforts are showing success. Combining funds from various sources, including the DDF and match, we hope to have $60-70,000 to spend on the playground, which will have a very positive impact on the playground.
Specifically, these grant funds will be used to purchase a large playground piece of equipment called a Eclipse Net Plus with 2-4 attach points. The cost for this piece of playground equipment is over $22,000. Please see attached photo of the equipment we would like to purchase with these grant funds. We will post before and after photos once the playground project is complete.
Auke Bay Elementary staff and PTA members worked together with regard to their preferences for the new equipment. We also worked with school district maintenance and borough personnel to ensure that safety concerns were addressed, including final inspections before use of the playground by students.
Several objectives for the new equipment emerged:
• additional equipment for upper elementary students - the largest remaining play structures in the current playground are more appropriate for lower elementary grades
• more updated "fun" structures, such as a new climbing structure and/or spinners; these items exist at other playgrounds across town, but not at Auke Bay
We expect to have the equipment installed by June of 2016 and complete the project by July of 2016.
Rotarians from all three clubs (nearly 200 total members) will have the opportunity to participate in site prep and installation of the new equipment. We are excited to be able to collaborate in this way to have a real impact in our local community!
Addendum to Project Description (added after the project was signed)
It ended up that we purchased a Eclipse Net Climber for $18,795 and shipping was $1,518 for a total of $20,283. The Auke Bay Elementary Parent Teacher Organization paid the amount above the $20,000 which was $283.
Our total budget was $20,000. $11,000 contribution from 3 our Rotary Clubs and $9,000 contribution from our District grant.
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