Parents Put Muscle in Structured Play

It is a child’s dream place to play: a tangled mass of old tires and telephone poles in the shapes of bridges, swings and tunnels perched on a mountainside with a panoramic view of Topanga Canyon.

Folks who donated time and materials in 1977 to build the sprawling jungle gym at Topanga Elementary School call it the Structure. Kids call it a way of life.

“You could always find a friend on the Structure,” said Anna Putnam, 8, a third-grader at the 300-student school. “Or, when you want to be alone, you can climb up there to the top.”

So when safety inspectors deemed the Structure unsafe and threatened its demolition unless repairs were made before Thanksgiving, the community did not hesitate.

Calls were issued in September for a series of community work parties, and civic-minded parents with hammers, shovels and materials converged upon the school yard each weekend for 6 weeks.

Roster of Repairs

Tires were installed to replace steel-belted radials with worn-through rubber that dangerously exposed sharp metal threads. Telephone poles were sanded down and painted, eliminating splinters. Sand that had sifted out of the Structure area was swept up, and the fence around the area was reinforced with sheet metal. Thus, children playing outside the fence will no longer slip on the loose sand.

Local businesses hauled away waste and donated most of the materials needed for the renovation, and the district agreed to provide 10 tons of sand.

“The people of the community came through with the labor and materials to make this work,” Principal Floyd Cottam said. “This really represented the spirit of Topanga Elementary. People were not willing to sit back and watch it get torn down.”

“It’s a great story,” said Gordon Robertson, one of the organizers of the renovation project. “That’s really the way it was.”

After 11 years of wear and tear, the Structure had begun to look its age. Los Angeles Unified School District safety inspectors found a list of hazards last April and closed down the sandy play area, ordering the Structure fixed or razed.

Children Barred

A rope went up around the area, a sign for children to keep away. “The saddest thing is to see some kid longingly hanging over . . sifting the sand through his fingers,” Cottam said.

On Friday, the community’s estimated 450 man-hours of volunteer labor paid off, and the newly renovated Structure passed district inspection less than a week before deadline.

The district at first had asked that the refurbishment be done over the summer, but a change in principals at the school made that impossible and left the project untouched until September.

Now, a small ceremony is planned for Monday to celebrate the reopening of the play area. Students who struggled for the past few months to amuse themselves with kickball and Simon Says expressed relief.

“There’s really nothing to do without the Structure,” said third-grader Casey Englehardt, 8. “People just sit on the bench and wait for the bell to ring.”

Robertson, whose son attends the school, believes the work by parents and others illustrates a commitment that is common among his neighbors.

“It’s not surprising for Topanga Canyon,” he said. “Maybe for other schools, but not for here.”