Contractors with Hatch Grading & Contracting, Inc. work to demolish part of the Dysart-Geneseo Elementary playground last Thursday afternoon. The school has been fundraising for a year to replace the 35-year-old playground with a new, inclusive ‘playground for every child.’ PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

DYSART – The booming sound of construction equipment could be heard across Dysart last Thursday afternoon as contractors with Hatch Grading & Contracting, Inc. got to work tearing apart much of the old Dysart-Geneseo Elementary playground equipment following the school’s successful year long campaign to raise $200,000 toward a new, inclusive ‘playground for every child.’

The contractors started with the equipment located on the south side of the playground near the dedication stone. Sitting off to the side standing as a sort of sentry over the whole process was one of the district’s Buddy Benches.

The newspaper recently reached out to DG Elementary Principal Derek Weber for an update on the school’s fundraising campaign. Weber said while the school has not quite raised all the funds necessary, they are close.

On May 20, campaign organizers announced the project recently received a grant worth $30,000 from the Max & Helen Guernsey Charitable Foundation as part of the foundation’s spring 2024 funding cycle.

It was a year ago this month that DG Elementary students kicked off the playground campaign with a $1,000 donation from the DG Student Council during the final assembly of the 2022-23 school year.

PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

Donations to the playground fund are still being accepted and can be made by check either through the mail or in person at the school located at 411 Lincoln Street, Dysart, or at Northeast Security Bank, 402 Main Street in downtown Dysart.

PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER