Lake Delton PTO buys new playground

By the start of next school year, students at Lake Delton Elementary School will have new swings and an outdoor climbing wall to play on.

The Lake Delton Parent Teacher Organization raised $10,000 for the equipment, according to the organization's president, Angela Reiger.

Reiger said the PTO money covers part of the cost, and that more was donated to cover additional costs from other businesses.

She said she has been with the PTO for three years and the fund-raising for the playground equipment was going on before she got involved.

Eight new swings will be added for kindergarten through second-graders, Reiger said. The new swings will make it possible for some older swings to be moved to the higher grades for their playground, and the older grades will also get a new climbing wall, she said.

The PTO raises money for things like the playground equipment and extra changes of clothes for students who get wet on the playground, according to Reiger. It donated gloves, and it also recently provided 20 teachers with $50 shopping sprees and donated tissue paper, wipes and bean bag chairs that were items requested on the teachers' wish list, she said.

The playground equipment was a major focus, but Reiger said the PTO didn't want to ignore other needs at the school.

The district's Buildings and Grounds Supervisor Dennis Draper said the school district will put the equipment in, but the funds for the equipment comes from the PTO, and not the buildings and grounds budget. Draper said an old slide and old teeter totter will be removed.

Reiger commented on how the PTO steps up when school budgets aren't big enough to handle some costs.

"Right now as tight as money is getting throughout the school systems, playgrounds pretty much do come from PTO. There's not spare money to say, ‘Hey, let's go buy new equipment,'" she said.

Reiger is a substitute for teacher's assistants and sometimes supervises on the playground. She said she's been there to limit how much time any one student spends on a swing so that others in line have some time to swing.

She said the new equipment will benefit the older kids, too, who need some amenities.

"So we're happy to get them the climbing wall and four swings, so they have something to do," she said.

The fund-raisers the PTO has done include selling Butter Braids, a frozen pastry that can be baked, bake sales, Tastefully Simple food catalogues and Yankee Candles. Reiger said the profit was donated from Tastefully Simple for which she is a consultant.

The Lake Delton PTO meets in the library at school on the first Tuesday of the month at 5 p.m. The organization is flexible on membership and parents as well as grandparents join.

Reiger said the organization has about six active members and a contact list of another 18 to 20 people who want to know what's going on.

The organization does monthly activities for the kids, including Kid Candy Bingo, Santa's Secret Shop where children can shop for their parents around Christmas, Kalahari Waterpark night, Knucklehead's family fun night and Cabin Fever Popcorn parties in classes, she said.