Million Smiles Playground
The Million Smiles Playground needed a big push leading up to its spring 2007 construction. Rotary primed the pump with a huge $100,000 gift to prompt others to give.
At the time, club president Frank Mansfield termed it the “perfect project” because of its scope.
“We are able to give back to the community on a big scale,” Mansfield said. “A large segment of the community will be able to make use out of this.”
A delegation of Rotarians went to Oak Harbor to tour a playground already designed by the Leathers & Associates consultants. “We wanted to see what it looks like and if it was worth this much money,” Mansfield said.
Then the discussion in the club was overwhelmingly in favor of going forward.
Construction of the imaginative colorful playground near Fishtrap Creek in the park made extensive use of community labor but still had hard expenses for all the material