Sedalia Park Elementary Holds Ribbon Cutting for New Playground

From Cobb County Public Schools:

MARIETTA, GA - With the help of grants, community donations and fundraising, Sedalia Park Elementary School officials recently cut the ribbon on the school’s new $70,000 playground.

Principal Tiffany Jackson officially cut the ribbon on the new playground September 8 as parents, students, faculty and community members looked on.

Sedalia Park cheerleaders kicked off ribbon cutting with a few cheers for their school. Cheerleaders from Wheeler High School and alumni of Sedalia Park helped lead the cheers.

The Sedalia Park School Foundation first set its sites on refurbishing the playground at the school more than two years ago.

“We saw a need, particularly for special needs children at the school, and the outdated equipment we had at the school just wasn’t up to par,” said Kate Tettamant, Sedalia Park School Foundation president. “We started a grant writing campaign. We started fundraising.”

At first the price tag of the new playground made the Foundation’s goal lofty until they received what a past Foundation president described as a “life changing” grant from the Resurgens Charitable Foundation. The group also received a grant from Publix Supermarket Charities. The grants totaled just under $40,000.

Additional fundraising helped push the Foundation past their goal to build the new playground. The school community helped raise funds through fundraisers like coin wars, spirit night, biscuit sales, flower sales and family bing-o night.

During the ceremony, Sedalia Park students read thank you notes they had written to those who had contributed to the construction of the new playground.

“Thank you for the new playground. What I like most is the blue slide because when I go down, I go really fast,” said one Sedalia Park student.

Tettamant said she thinks the new playground is already making a difference for the children, especially the children with special needs.

“The special needs kids really didn’t have adequate equipment for them to play on before, and now they have this playground with a ramp going up to it,” Tettamant said. “There are panels they can play with, and they don’t necessarily have to climb up on to the playground to get to it. So if they are wheelchair bound, they can still play on the playground and enjoy it.”

After the ribbon-cutting ceremony, kids raced to play on the new equipment.

Photo via Cobb County Public Schools.