WKRN, Nashville, Tennessee News, Weather, and Sports |Volunteers build new playground for Nashville students

Volunteers build new playground for Nashville students

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Students at The Murrell School in Nashville will soon be enjoying a brand new playground thanks to the efforts of some Vanderbilt University students who raised around $20,000 from local businesses and supporters.

With the help of that money and 250 volunteers, the dream of a new playground became a reality over the weekend.

Caitlin Brannigan, one of the students who helped make the new playground come true, is a senior at Vanderbilt University.

"I think the children need it more than anybody else to be able to come out here," said Brannigan.  "They can get some of their aggression out or kind of forget about everything they're struggling with."

Brannigan, along with Jessica Demorest and Lindsay Hayes, also seniors at Vanderbilt, began tutoring at The Murrell School a few months ago.

"We noticed their playground was in pretty bad shape so we decided to try and do something about it," said Hayes.

Demorest said the playground was unsafe, littered with broken glass, and most of the equipment was outdated or broken.

The students started working to raise money in December.  They created a Web site and started reaching out to businesses and people in the community for donations.

"That first day looking at here, I guess I had a vision for this," said Demorest, "but didn't realize that it could turn into something this wonderful."

"We knew that, if anything, we were going to do something for this school," said Brannigan.  "We weren't going to let the economy or other challenges really hinder us."

The students at The Murrell School picked out the playground equipment and voted on the design of the playground.

Susan Siegel, the school's principal, said they're "thrilled to have a safe place" for their students to play.

"Unfortunately, with Metro's budget at this time, playgrounds aren't the priority and haven't been for awhile," said Siegel.

The volunteer effort drew both Vanderbilt students and people from all over the Nashville community.

• Feb. 25, 2009: College students clean up Metro playground unfit for kids