There were cement pillars to remove, poles to lift gently and myriad other work that had to be done in a very carefully planned way that was even called “tedious.”
Then it all had to be shipped from Connecticut to another nation.
And many workers and officials in towns in the state were delighted to do it
Now, some 25 playscapes from 14 Connecticut communities are finding a second life about 3,200 miles away, much to the delight of the donors and recipients, alike.
The brainchild of Thomaston’s Jay Fredlund, the playscapes that were no longer viable for area municipalities were carefully disassembled, packed into 40-foot sea containers and shipped to missions in Guatemala where they were reassembled by service teams serving ministries.
One of the original towns Fredlund worked with was Darien, where Pamela Gery was director of Parks and Recreation.
Gery said when she received the first photos of the playgrounds all assembled in Guatemala “it just struck me.”
“All those efforts that they could reach far beyond our parks and playgrounds here in the United States,” she said. “It was so powerful and so heartwarming.”
“I would do it all over again,” she said.
And she did. When she became Guilford’s director of Parks, Recreation and Seniors in 2024 replacing town playscapes was one of her first tasks.
The project took hold during a 2018 conversation between Fredlund and John Hollerbach, owner and president of West Hartford’s Creative Recreation.
Fredlund, an ambassador with Kids Alive, International, was volunteering at the Vida Para Ninos in Guatemala and “partnered with a church 90 miles away from where we worked whose playground was in lousy shape,” he said.
At the time Fredlund received some parts and fixed up the playground with help from Hollerbach.
“I asked him, ‘Ever have a playground that still has some life in it?’” Fredlund recalled.
“He called me back just a couple days later and he was putting a new one in at the Boys and Girls’ Club in New Britain, Connecticut and he gave us that one,” Fredlund said.
The project was so well received that when Fredlund returned home in 2023 he connected with Hollerbach again and the program started in earnest. He worked on the program for 2 ½ years before it was discontinued.
“Thank you all so much,” wrote Misi Schlax at Agua Viva School. “Please pass on our thanks to everyone involved. It is covered with kids daily and will get years of love and use!”
Fredlund said the average playground in the Central American country is rudimentary.
“I’ve seen 55-gallon drums welded together to make up a tunnel,” he said. “Typically, playgrounds were made out of rebar. Take that, weld something and now you’ve got yourself a playground, so to speak.”
Therefore, Fredlund said, “the perfect playground would typically be a set of swings and then what we would call a playscape…and that playscape would have one or two slides, it would have elevated decks to run around on and then…it would have different stations from which to climb or slide,” he said.
This is exactly what was in Guilford that Gery was responsible with replacing when she started her new job.
The town had been working on a budget and source of funds for new playscapes, then COVID hit and the projects were put on hold until funds from the American Rescue Plan Act became available, said Matt Hoey, Guilford’s first selectman.
“We had 6 ½ million dollars worth of COVID relief money and one of the original categories for the use of those funds was to create outdoor spaces for people and so, consistent with the original intent the COVID relief efforts, we decided to make some capital investments particularly in playgrounds,” said Hoey.
A total of $490,000 was used for the Jacob’s Beach playscape and $406,000 was earmarked for Bittner Park, said Hoey.
At each location there were playscapes with areas designed for kids 2 – 5 years old and other areas for 5- to 12-year-olds, Gery said.
They took these structures, split them up and sent five separate playscapes to Guatemala.
Two of the playgrounds, from Guilford’s Jacob’s Beach, arrived and are expected to be re-assembled in November 2026.
Gery was quick to credit many town employees, from Parks and Recreation to Public Works, for the success of this project.
“It’s certainly not snap your fingers and it’s done,” she said. “There are a lot of different moving parts that you have to negotiate and to kind of navigate.”
“The amount of time it would take to take a bulldozer and bulldoze it down, pick it up and throw it in the landfill is one day, compared to three weeks,” she said.
“The cement pillars come out of the bottom, and the poles are all lifted gently,” she said. “There’s a lot of very tedious, well thought out, gentle (work), setting aside for what Jay had marked to take with him,” she said.
“I just so happened to have these new staff members and their immediate response was ‘Absolutely, I’m on board. I want to be part of this,’” she said.
Hoey applauded the town employees who helped bring the project to fruition.
“Public Works did a great job on both places with preparation site work, cleaning up the old site, helping the Park and Rec maintenance staff with taking down the older structures,” Hoey said.
Not all municipalities were as eager to get involved as Fredlund learned in approaching a disinterested official.
“We looked at five of their playgrounds that they replaced in 2024 and three of them would have been totally, excellent candidates for Guatemala and the person who ran that area just said, ‘Jay, you know what, it’s easier for me just to have an excavator come throw them in the dumpster.’”
Playgrounds are replaced for a variety of reasons, including the cost to continue up-keep and adherence to industry safety guidelines.
“Our industry in the states is governed by several entities, the Consumer Product Safety Commission is really the biggest driving force and the equipment, after a 15- or 20-year life cycle, really is out of compliance,” Hollerbach said. “It can be dangerous.”
“Things break and wear and tear and it’s difficult, depending upon which manufacturer you’re working with, getting replacement parts for your old playground,” he said.
“If parts can be salvaged and the good parts can be put together somewhere else, in a safe manner, which is what Jay does, why not?” he said.
This is a win-win for both municipalities trying to “dispose” of playscapes and Fredlund’s project.
“It’s better than them going to a landfill or a recycling place,” said Hollerbach.
In addition, hearing about where the playscapes eventually find a second life makes Hollerbach happy.
“Some of these kids have never seen a playscape before, so it’s awesome to be able to give them an opportunity, a new experience – all the interaction and socialization and developmental skills that play equipment help our kids,” he said.
Hollerbach connected Fredlund with officials in Darien, Guilford, Hartford, New Britain, New London and New Milford to repurpose play equipment.
Other municipalities that participated included Deep River, Gaylordsville, Greenwich, New Fairfield, Plainfield, Prospect, Southington and Stonington.
Fredlund received this note regarding a Hartford playscape.
“It is truly a beautiful playground, and we are beyond happy with it!,” wrote Luke Doppenberg of Dream Invest Grow in Guatemala.
Hoey said this was very positive project.
“It’s wonderful to think something that serviced our community for so long is now servicing another community where those kinds of luxuries never existed,” he said. “It’s a pay it forward moment.”
“It just made all the sense in the world to make sure it would up where it would be greatly appreciated,” he said.
Gery recalled watching a video of Guatemalan children near the city of Coban and their new playground.
“These kids were so excited,” she said. “They had them lined up on the sidelines before they could even touch it and you could tell their eyes were scanning and they didn’t know which part of it they were going to touch first, where they were going to go first.”
“Then they just all let loose and they went all running,” she said. “It’s a simple gift of play and joy.”
Contact Sarah Kyrcz at [email protected]