Play360 is a nonprofit organization that trains organizations throughout the developing world to build their own educational tools and sends volunteers out to help organize and construct these playgrounds, said Jon Racek, founder and executive director of the organization and a professor in IU’s Department of Apparel Merchandising and Interior Design.
Six volunteers from Play360 traveled this summer to Salcaja, Guatemala, a small village near Quetzaltenango, Guatemala’s second largest city. In Salcaja, they built a playground made almost entirely out of recycled materials for the Las Flores School.
Racek has been traveling with volunteers to build playgrounds across the globe for four years, but he said it was a trip with the Kelley School of Business two years ago that provided him with the connections that made their trip to Guatemala possible.
While in Guatemala the first time with Kelley, Racek said he came in contact with Fundap, an organization that, according to its website, “[promotes] activities that support people and communities with scarce economical resources.”
“They’re sort of a perfect organization for us to work with,” Racek said.
Starting in March, Racek said he helped the community organize the necessary preparations to allow them to begin construction upon arrival. A team of about 15 people helped collect tires used in construction, and another team of about the same size started to paint them.
By the time the playground was finished, almost 100 people had taken part in the project, including parents and teachers of local children, he said.
Sarah Rosenbaum, a graduate student in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs, also traveled to Guatemala and took particular notice of the dynamic of the local volunteers.
At first, she said, only the fathers were helping to construct the playground, but after a few days, mothers dressed in beautiful traditional clothing were wielding hammers just the same as their husbands.
“You realize we’re all people,” Rosenbaum said. “We all want the same thing.”
Along with Racek and Rosenbaum, senior Megan Wicker, IU alumna Katie Harryman, her mother Anne and Professor Douglas Gordon of Boston University also traveled as volunteers.
The trip lasted from June 26 to July 2 and it was a combination of work and play for both children and volunteers, Rosenbaum said.
“That’s how kids really learn best, through play,” she said.
The volunteers spent the first few days of the trip working from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., interacting with the children and their parents while putting together the playground with surprising speed, Racek said.
“We got such a great community support ... that we were able to finish it in four days,” he said.
Racek said one of the things they built was a tire calculator, a row of tires with numbers painted on them that children can use to write out math equations.
But once the playground was finished, the celebration began, Rosenbaum said.
“When we were done with the playground, we had this really lovely ceremony,” she said, recalling getting to cut the ribbon that officially opened the playground.
The rest of the trip was spent touring Guatemala’s historical and cultural sights, Rosenbaum said. The group visited Lake Atitlan, hiked Pacaya Volcano, went ziplining, and explored the colonial town of Antigua.
“I kept pinching myself,” she said.
Rosenbaum said the build was definitely the most rewarding part of the trip.
She said it was amazing to be able to provide a community with the tangible playground and the intangible benefits of this kind of project, such as instilling confidence in people that they can work together to make improvements in their wcommunity.
Both Rosenbaum and Racek voiced the importance of a trip like this one to people wanting to be part of the global community.
“It totally opens your eyes and makes you a more global citizen,” Rosenbaum said.
Play360 has three more trips planned for the coming year, including two to Guatemala and one to Nicaragua, Racek said.
“To people who are thinking about applying, I say just go for it,” Rosenbaum said.
Racek said no prior construction experience is necessary, but the experience of the trip is like nothing else.
“It’s really a special event,” Racek said. “I love doing it.”
