Her Goal: An Instant Playground To Last

Her goal: an instant playground to last

NEAL LAMBERT

By ROBERT L. ROMAKER

NEWS STAFF REPORTER

About a year ago, Diane Saulter embarked on the biggesTvoIunteer" project of her life.

Saulter is co-chair of a group trying to round up 1,000 volunteer workers to erect a $500,000 playground in five days at Eberwhite School on Ann Arbor’s west side. “It will be kind of like an old-fashioned barn-raising,’’ says Saulter of the project scheduled to start May 2.

The nontraditional playground will be composed of two areas, one for lower grades and the other for upper grades. Both areas will be multi-level wooden structures, including decks, tunnels, balance beams, suspension bridge, space tunnel, totem pole, slides and a maze.

“I signed up to help because I saw a real need for this type of playground,” says Saulter, 39. “As a mother, it’s important to me that my children learn to use their imaginations, develop motor and muscle skills, and get along with other youngsters outside of the classroom.” She has two children, Andrew, 8, and a preschooler, Nathan, 3.

A nontraditional playground, Saulter says, stimulates youngsters to use their imaginations as they negotiate a series of decks, tunnels, and crannies. “They can pretend they are in a castle, spaceship, or setting up a household,” she says. “They can designate each other as the king, the pilot, the mother or father."

There also is lots of running, climbing, balancing, challenging and building young bodies, she adds.

As co-director of volunteers, Saulter says, she’s made hundreds of phone calls and speaks to civic groups and business persons in her recruiting efforts. “We hope to get at least one representative from all 290 families with students at Eberwhite,” she says. The Professional Volunteers Corps, a local singles

group that specializes in community service, has promised to send 40 persons.

Saulter advises that approximately 50 persons are engaged in planning what is perhaps the biggest project of its kind ever undertaken in Ann Arbor. They include her co-volunteer leader Kathleen McGuiness, Mary Richards, “a fireball” in charge of fund-raising, and general coordinators Florence Hendershot and Ruth Thomas.

Thomas estimates the value of the project at $500,000. The only cost to the local group, she says, is $60,000 for building materials and

architects’ fees. The materials and architects will be supplied by Robert S. Leathers Inc. of Ithaca, N.Y. The Leathers firm has designed more than 400 similar playgrounds across the country.

To raise the $60,000, the playground committee of the Eberwhite PTO, which conceived the idea for the project, has put on spaghetti dinners, conducted bottle drives, sponsored dances and received money contributions from individuals and businesses. Currently, Saulter says, “we still need $9,000.”

Born in Long Beach, Ca., Saulter earned a degree in economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She met her husband Ken, who works for the Industrial Technology Institute of Ann Arbor, in college. Before coming to Ann Arbor in 1988, the couple lived in Washington, D.C., Cleveland, East Lansing and, for four years, in Geneva, Switzerland.

“I really liked Geneva,” she recalls. “We did a lot of cross-country skiing, enjoyed the variety of

cheeses and French food.” Saulter adds that she became somewhat of a gourmet cook, specializing in paella and French tarts.

Before coming to Ann Arbor from East Lansing, she tuned up for her present challenge by recruiting 80 volunteers to stage workshops for cooperative nursery parents.

“I guess I’ve always been a volunteer,” she relates. "I like being . able to connect with the community outside of my home, although I believe my primary responsibilities are inside my home.” Part of her connection includes teaching Sunday school at Friends Meeting House.

Saulter says her husband would like her to take a one-year “breather” after the Eberwhite project is completed.

“Maybe, but I have a weakness,” she laughs. “Mention a cause that interests me, and I’ll work on it. My hand and arm just seems to go up automatically, sort of like Dr. Strangelove.”