Carol Ferry was rushing around one afternoon in June of 2023 getting ready to meet up with a group of friends from Cedartown at Magic Kingdom. Having relocated to Florida earlier that year, Carol’s clothes weren’t quite sorted out properly after the move. She ended up just throwing on the first T-shirt she could find.
“I have a lot of special T-shirts that I’ve collected over the years,” Carol explained. “I just grabbed one from the dresser without even looking really.”
Giving herself a little glance in the mirror before dashing out of the house, she chuckled when she realized what shirt she was wearing: the original 1999 Build a Dream Foundation Peek Park Playground T-shirt.
Carol and her family lived in Cedartown during the 1999 community playground build. In fact, Carol, along with her friend Leslie McFall, are the reasons why Cedartown had a Peek Park Playground in the first place.
But back to the original story. Once Carol arrived at Disney, one of her friends pointed out the shirt and thought it was an interesting twist of fate that she’d just happened to pick that one out.
“She laughed and said, you know, it’s funny you are wearing that because we’re actually working on rebuilding that playground,” Carol said.
Of course, with Carol having led the original playground effort, her interest was piqued. She asked a few questions, some texts were passed back and forth, and before she knew it, she was signing up to assist with the 2024 Peek Park Playground Build.
Carol will head to Cedartown next week to contribute to the new build effort. Upon hearing that their mother was heading back to Cedartown to help build the new playground, Carol’s two grown sons – one living in North Carolina and one living in California – decided that they weren’t going to be left out of the fun.
“They said, ‘Mom, if you are going, then so are we!’ They spent a lot of time out there on the old playground, so they are going to try and participate with the new one as well,” Carol said. “It was very special to them.” Carol’s husband and daughter also hope to join the rest of the family at the playground build next week.
Carol said she was a little surprised to hear that the original Peek Park Playground that was constructed almost 25 years ago was still in use up until a few months ago. City of Cedartown officials removed the original structure on December 27 so that grading and prep work could be done for the new playground.
“Twenty-four, almost 25 years is a long time. I am so glad it lasted that long and so many children were able to play on it and enjoy it,” Carol said.
For those that don’t know, the original playground began as a dream that both Carol and Leslie had back in 1998. They were both moms of young children, and after some disappointing trips to Peek Park for playdates, they decided something had to be done.
“The park here was in rough shape. There was concrete sticking out of the ground, things like that, it just wasn’t the best situation,” Carol recalled.
A visit to a playground in the Atlanta area sparked the change.
“We visited a playground that was a community build project. It was an amazing place. We told ourselves that we could do the same thing. We found out the name of the company who helped build that playground, made some phone calls and that started it,” Carol said laughing. “We had no experience at all, we just knew that we had a dream to make things better.”
After a year of fundraising, spreading the word the old-fashioned way (there was no social media) and some unexpected bumps and bruises, their playground idea began to morph from idea to reality.
“It was a great experience, very stressful, but overall great. Looking back, that project is one of my top 10 experiences in my life.”
Carol and Leslie, with the help of close friends, dedicated more than a year of their lives to seeing the original playground through. It was a daunting project and had never been done before. No one made them do it, they just saw a need, volunteered their time and effort, and went to work.
Since 1999, year after year after year, thousands of children and their families have visited the playground. Countless birthdays have been celebrated there, family picnics held, lazy summer days spent swinging and sliding; it’s become part of the fabric of our community. Once the original playground succumbed to age, City leaders knew it had to be replaced, and replaced the right way.
“We could have saved a lot of time and money by installing just your standard run-of-the-mill playground.” explained City Manager Edward Guzman. “But we know that Peek Park is special. The playground built there in 1999 by the community is what made it shine. It was the obvious choice to go about rebuilding a new one with the same community spirit and attention to detail as was done two decades ago.”
Carol encourages anyone who wishes to help build the playground to come out to Peek Park next week and give it a try.
“You don’t need experience. There’s a place for everyone. During the original build week, older folks that weren’t physically able to help construct the playground, just went around handing out band-aids to people that needed them. So there are always things like that needing to be done. Those things are just as important as using a saw or carrying lumber.”
For those “teeter-tottering” on the decision to donate some of their time help move the project along, Carol offers these words.
“Once you get there and see the energy it creates, you won’t want to leave. You will be blessed in ways you can’t imagine,” she explained. “You bond with people that you normally wouldn’t see or interact with on a day-to-day basis. Volunteering breaks down barriers in the community and you work together towards a common goal. Everyone walks away with a great feeling.”
Carol is one of those that understands the meaning of service work and the impact of what one tiny spark of excitement can do.
“This whole idea, this whole project could be the starting point for something else amazing in Cedartown. It could give someone else another idea,” Carol said. “It’s another chance for someone to say, ‘hey, we did this and so I think we can do this,’ or ‘what else can we do to make our community better?’.”
Even if you can only volunteer for an hour, the current playground steering committee welcomes you to help any way you can.
Time spent helping others, helping your community is never wasted.
Sign-up to volunteer at www.playatpeek.org
