Old Guilford Playground Equipment Gets New Life In Guatemala

GUILFORD, CT — Rather than sending the old Bittner Park and Jacobs Beach playground equipment into a landfill last year, the town decided to send it to Guatemala, and now children thousands of miles away from Guilford are getting the chance to play outside.

Guilford utilized federal funding from the American Rescue Plan Act to replace the playground equipment at the popular parks, and crews from Guilford's Parks and Recreation and Public Works Departments carefully disassembled slides, ladders, stairs and other features bolt by bolt.

"When I began working in Guilford, I immediately started coordinating the use of ARPA funds to replace the playgrounds at Bittner Park and Jacobs Beach," Parks and Recreation Director Pam Gery said in a recent news release from the town. "I spoke with our Parks Supervisor Tony Annicelli and Public Works Director Dave Castro about the idea of donating our playgrounds to Guatemala through Kids Alive, and both were fully supportive of dedicating the significant time and resources required to carefully remove the existing equipment."

Pieces of equipment were labeled and shipped to Guatemala to be reinstalled at schools, camps and ministries, Guilford said, noting the donation was part of a statewide effort with Thomaston and resident Jay Fredlund who coordinated the shipment of 25 playgrounds from Connecticut.

Five of the playgrounds came from Guilford. One smaller playground from Jacobs Beach was sent to a church camp in New Hampshire.

A Christian school in San Cristóbal, a school in northern Guatemala, a community ministry in Chimaltenango and a Christian retreat and camp center overlooking Lake Atitlán were recipients of Guilford playground equipment.

Fredlund and his wife Cathy had volunteered in Guatemala for five years and saw a need for quality playground equipment that's prevalent in the U.S., according to the town.

The playground equipment was loaded to the Port of New York in what Fredlund called a "team effort," the town noted.

Fredlund noted Gery played an important role in giving the equipment a second life. She helped relocate three playgrounds in her previous role as Darien Parks and Recreation director.

Gery said seeing photos and videos of the Guilford playgrounds in use overseas was "heartwarming" and made her proud.