Lincoln playground committee makes significant strides toward goal

What started as a seemingly unattainable dream is getting closer and closer to becoming a reality, as the Lincoln Primary School is successfully raising money through their jog-a-thon, sales of cookies, Happy Pops, and grant applications.

When the Lincoln Primary School staff formed its playground committee at the beginning of this year, principal Holly Bjerke and teacher and playground committee lead Halee Reisenauer weren’t sure what to expect when they saw the $300,000 cost estimate from Water & Environmental Technologies (WET).

“I’m not gonna lie – we weren’t very hopeful,” Reisenauer said.

Since then, the school has made significant strides toward the necessary funds for the new playground.

Bjerke said that there is about $35,000 sitting in the school’s bank account for the playground right now. This is solely money that’s been made from the jog-a-thon the school hosted in the spring, 30 business sponsorships, a cookie sale the school held at Art in Washoe Park and sales of ‘Happy Pops’ by the Romero family at the Anaconda Community Market every Thursday.

In terms of grants, the Anaconda-Deer Lodge County Commission recently agreed to serve as their sponsor so the school can apply for funding from the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation – which it otherwise wouldn't be able to do – and which Reisenauer said if it's granted it can’t be used for playground equipment. Instead, it would be used for the playground’s drainage and plants, which she estimated would cost more than $100,000.

If they're awarded the grant from the DNRC, Bjerke said they’d have to start using the funds sooner rather than later, so work on the playground could potentially start as early as this fall.

Recently, the Pintler Athletic Center (PAC) announced it was planning to allocate $100,000 to Lincoln’s playground remodel.

“It was huge,” Reisenauer said. “Just that the word’s getting out about the program and (PAC) thought of us.”

She and Bjerke emphasized that although they didn’t expect to raise an abundance of funds from its bake sale at Art in Washoe Park and jog-a-thon – which raised a round $1,000 and more than $15,000, respectively – their main goal was to get the word out.

Reisenauer said that they ran into people at Art in Washoe Park who hadn’t heard of the playground remodel, but approached their cookie table asking about it and donated.

“And everybody loved the cookies,” she said.

Bjerke said she plans to present before the Anaconda Community Foundation on Tuesday in order to apply for a grant.

All in all, Bjerke and Reisenauer said that everyone – from staff to students to community members – have been incredibly motivated and supportive.

To keep students excited about the jog-a-thon, for instance, the school offered both small and big prizes to students who met certain fundraising benchmarks. 

“There was at least one kid from each class that got a big prize,” Reisenauer said.

Some lucky students even got to end the year on a “pie” note – students who raised the most amount of money got the opportunity to pie their teachers in the face with pies made of shaving cream. Bjerke and P.E. teacher Henry Huber, who organizes the mileage club, were among those who got pied.

“It was a fun way to end the school year,” Bjerke said.

Many staff members have also donated their time, with six teachers spending four hours to bake around 350 cookies for their Art in Washoe Park sale, and others volunteering to hand out thank-you notes to business sponsors.

“Everyone here at Lincoln wants to make this happen,” Bjerke said. 

And just by spreading the word, some parents and community members have gotten donors from places outside of the community and even out of state, such as Wyoming.

For more information, visit https://www.anacondaschools.org/page/playground-remodel.