Showing they can swing it

MOSES LAKE — Park Orchard Elementary students walked a lot of laps and all that walking paid off. The students dedicated their brand-new swing set, and got to play on it for the first time, Thursday morning.

“This is an enormous accomplishment,” said principal Scott West. Students raised money to buy the new playground equipment through the school walkathons, raising about $13,000. That was enough money “for our school to do something really big,” and that big thing was a new set of swings.

The school playground didn’t have swings. West said a fourth-grader was talking to him last fall and said she’d been waiting for swings since kindergarten.

So about 485 students walked and raised money for the new swings. “You did this,” West told the students. "This is an enormous accomplishment."

But even $13,000 couldn’t pay for the whole project. Brad Summers of Summers Excavation volunteered his time and equipment for site prep, West said.

All Park Orchard students who were at school Thursday morning assembled on the playground to look at the new swings and get a safety lesson. Once that was done the swings were available during recess to all kids who wanted to try them out.

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at education@columbiabasinherald.com.