SEQUIM — Sequim School District families, staff and friends celebrated two times the fun with new playground installations at Greywolf and Helen Haller elementary schools.
Seventh-grader Ocean Mounts, a former Greywolf student, and fourth-grader Julian Mendoza at Helen Haller cut ribbons to commemorate the new structures on Aug. 16.
Greywolf Principal Jennifer Lopez commended Mounts, now a Sequim Middle School student, to families and staff members at the ceremony for his suggestion to build a new playground a few years ago. His persistence in asking about it helped prompt the school district and Parent Teacher Association to act.
Mounts said he’s grateful that other children — including his brother Ollie, a second-grader — get to play on a new structure he had hoped for.
The school’s new structure, Quantis M2, is an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)-compliant inclusive climbing, netted structure with a slide that “offers accessible pathways, unexpected climbing opportunities, and a range of sensory and physical inputs from fixed to bouncy, smooth to rough and high to low,” according to the manufacturer.
Two Friendship Swings — a multi-user playground swing for all-ages and abilities — and a We-Saw, a four-seat see-saw also for all ages and abilities, were installed, too. Additional ADA-accessible swings are on order.
“I love it,” Lopez said of the new playground equipment. “It’s really important for kids to be outside and socializing.”
Lopez, also a former Greywolf student, said “the playground has never been better.”
At Helen Haller Elementary, Mendoza was chosen to cut the ribbon because of his excitement after he learned the structure was to be installed. He said he was honored to be picked.
Principal Rebecca Stanton said Mendoza was the first to learn about it when she showed him a picture of the playground.
“I’m super excited for students,” Stanton said. “(The structure) means a lot more variety to be active and have fun.”
The structure, the Crab Trap with SlideWinder2, also is an ADA-compliant, inclusive netted playground structure where children can “decide how to navigate from the outside to the inside and back again (and) no matter how they climb or crawl through the challenges, the open-ended play experience will keep them coming back for more,” according to the manufacturer.
Both school playgrounds now feature anti-splinter wood chips.
The Crab Trap is the first playground equipment to be installed at the school in nearly two decades, Stanton said. She said district staffers’ conversations led to the playground installation at Helen Haller, and both school structures were completed within about a week of each other.
Supply chain issues delayed installation through the school year, she said.
Sequim schools superintendent Regan Nickels said costs for the two schools’ playground equipment and installation was about $290,000 using district and grant funds.
Funds from schools’ fundraisers also contributed to the projects, staff and Sequim Elementary PTA leaders said.
Greywolf Elementary PTA, now part of Sequim Elementary PTA, held a Jog-a-Thon in 2022 with more than $25,000 going toward the school’s playground.
Landscape Structures manufactured the equipment and the school district worked with the PlayCreations company of Burien to facilitate certified commercial installation, Nickels said.
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Matthew Nash is a reporter with the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum. Reach him at matthew.nash@sequimgazette.com.
