PORT ANGELES — When the 8-year-old girl showed up at a Port Angeles playground, she kicked off her shoes to climb around on the rocks.
If retired Vietnam veteran Chuck Seelye hadn’t been there with his metal detector, the girl’s playtime could have had a bad ending.
“She doesn’t realize I’m picking stuff up around her while she’s running around,” Seelye said. “Staples, large screws, wire, a tiny ring.”
Seelye and his metal detector have spent the year going from playground to playground, picking up any metal that has accumulated over the years.
Seelye’s volunteer efforts began when he received a metal detector for Christmas last year. He wanted to test it out, so he took it to Carrie Blake Park in Sequim.
“When I saw how bad it was, I thought, ‘I need to go to the rest of them,’” he said.
Seelye then toured 30 or more local playgrounds — he said he wasn’t concerned about keeping track of things like numbers — going from the Blyn area to just past Port Angeles. He combed through any playground that had gravel, wood chips or anything that might hide metal.
He had to get permission to access some playgrounds, but Seelye didn’t let that stop him — even when one playground took four contacts before he got permission.
Most playground supervisors were happy to give him access, Seelye said. Only five preschools declined, and Seelye said he’s willing to canvass their playgrounds if officials change their minds.
The organizations that do approve the cleanup often are immensely grateful, Seelye said. At one church, Seelye said he showed someone the four or five pieces of ragged wire he had found on the playground floor.
“She looked at that and her face just showed everything,” he said. “The facial emotion is really something.”
There also were three playgrounds next to churches that had recently repaired their roofs, Seelye said. At each of those playgrounds, he found staples near the roofs that the workers hadn’t cleaned up.
“[Volunteering] is the only way to get something done properly,” he said.
Some playgrounds are so small, Seelye said he thought there was no way he’d find anything. But he always did. At one small playground, he said he found “a chunk of ragged metal at the bottom of the slide, and I was shocked,” he said.
“It’s things like that, that keep you going,” he said.
Although Seelye has found screws, wire, staples and even a knife blade, he said there’s one thing he hasn’t found that has been “the cherry on top.”
“So far, no needles,” he said.
If Seelye does find needles, he’s prepared. He carries around a jar and tongs that he can use to pick them up.
Sometimes, the cleanup is tedious for the 80-year-old.
“[Some playgrounds] took over two hours of back and forth, every 6 inches, and your arm gets sore,” he said. But, “when you’re done, you’re done,” he added.
Seelye, who retired in 2005 and now lives in Sequim, is used to a life of service. In addition to being a veteran, he spent 13 years volunteering at the Deschutes National Forest when he lived in Bend, Ore.
Now, he also volunteers with the Sequim Wheelers, an adaptive bicycle group.
For his playground venture, though, he said he’s happy being a lone wolf. But if people ask to try out his metal detector, he willingly obliges.
“I’ll drop a coin and let a kid try to find it,” he said.
Now that he’s canvassed most of the playgrounds, Seelye said he’s moving onto another target: ballparks.
Once he searches all of those, he said he’ll move onto another target area, then another, then another.
Seelye said he isn’t concerned about tracking his progress or getting recognition.
“It’s just something to do,” he said.
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Reporter Emma Maple can be reached by email at emma.maple@peninsuladailynews.com.
