BY MARY WICOFF
BISMARCK — Now that the Woman’s Club of Bismarck and other volunteers have worked their magic, the playground at the Bismarck Park is brighter and safer.
But, that’s not all: Within a year, the club hopes to have raised enough money to install new equipment so the local children can have a safe and modern place to play.
“It’s time for an update. We want it to look 30 years younger,” Karel Volpert, a Woman’s Club member, said about the old equipment.
The park is owned by the Bismarck Lions Club. However, the local chapter of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs-Illinois has adopted it as a project.
The first phase was to paint and correct safety issues. The second phase will be to raise money for new equipment, which will be placed in an open shady area near the pavilion.
During the weekend, about 15 people — a couple of townspeople, and members of the Woman’s Club and Lions Club — turned out to work at the park. Rain delayed the work for awhile, but in the end, they were able to complete most of the project.
They splashed bright red, yellow and blue paint on the merry-go-round, three small horses on springs, the poles on the swing sets, the sides of the slides, the teeter-totter and tunnel. The bench, bike rack and parking-place poles were painted, too.
Safety problems were corrected: a root near the merry-go-round was taken out and chunks of concrete at the end of the small slide were removed.
Other plans call for spreading the gravel and spraying the weeds.
The Woman’s Club was able to complete the project with a $255 grant from Keep Vermilion County Beautiful.
Don Evans, a member of the Lions Club, was pleased that the Woman’s Club is helping the park, saying, “Anytime the whole community can work together, it’s better.”
“It’s important to work with the Lions because it’s their park,” Volpert said.
The park was opened in the late 1960s or early ’70s, Evans said. The Woman’s Club put some of the playground pieces there in the early ‘70s, so that equipment is more than 30 years old. In fact, Volpert said a friend remembers playing on the merry-go-round as a student at Bismarck Grade School in 1957.
The old equipment has been painted in the past.
Next phase
The Woman’s Club already has a jump on its next phase — buying new equipment.
The first donation came from two second-graders at Bismarck-Henning Elementary School. The girls raised $3-4 from a lemonade stand for the playground.
The club hopes to raise $15,000-$20,000 during the next year to buy equipment. The club also will write grants.
One of the biggest fund raisers happens this Saturday during the Men’s Club of Bismarck’s Fourth of July celebration. Raffle tickets will be sold all day, starting at noon, at the park. Tickets are $1 each or six for $5.
The drawing will be about 8 p.m., before the fireworks start.
The highlight will be a silent auction for a hot-air balloon ride for two. Other items to be raffled include passes to athletic events at schools, crafts, facials, gourd birdhouses and beauty products.
People will be able to place their tickets in front of the desired item.
Bonnie Bodensteiner, past president of the Woman’s Club, said the club would like to have the money raised within a year. Other fundraisers will be held.
When the new equipment is bought, it will be handicapped-accessible, she said.
TO HELP
A raffle and silent auction to help raise funds to buy playground equipment at Bismarck Park will be from noon to 8 p.m. Saturday at the park. The raffle will be part of the village’s Fourth of July celebration, which includes fireworks at dusk.
To donate items for the raffle or to donate money for equipment, call Bonnie Bodensteiner at 759-7465.
