Perth Voice Interactive

Parents crowdfund for playground

AFTER getting knocked back for two state government grants the parents from North Perth primary school are taking fundraising into their own hands.

They want to buy a high-end German climbing frame designed for unstructured “free play”. An embodiment of teutonic engineering, the “Explorer Dome” is built to challenge kids’ mental and physical development instead of letting them languish on the usual safe and boring plastic slide set up.

For the past two years they’ve tried to get a playground equipment grant but even with local MP Eleni Evangel onside and lobbying for them they’ve been knocked back each time, despite their play equipment looking pretty stark next to Mt Hawthorn primary school.

They’ve previously raised a bit of cash for their nature playground by pressing and selling olive oil but this one will need a hefty $40,000, the equivalent of 5000kg of olives collected over five years.

Instead they’ve gone high-tech and hopped on the crowdfunding bandwagon.

The platform they’ve gone with—Chuffed—only does social causes, so movie stars looking for millions for their next flick (like Dax Shepard and Zach Braff) are out.

But Chuffed also doesn’t skim the usual five per cent from the top, and doesn’t use the usual “all or nothing” model: most crowdfunders return all money to donors if the target isn’t met, but the school will grab what’s offered.

P&C mum Kirstyn Johnson says the frame will go in at the school oval, which is actually in a public area across from the school where any member of the public can play.

It went live on Chuffed on Wednesday at http://www.chuffed.org/project/free-climb-dome and the usual initial crowdfund rush has seen $2350 raised in about three hours, and Vincent council’s pitching in $10,000.

by DAVID BELL