Recently, 12 tons of soft sand were donated by USS Cal Builders to Knott Avenue Early Childhood Development Center in Anaheim.
Stanton City Councilman David Shawver heard that the school had a need for sand under its new swings and orchestrated the donation between the company and school.
Recently, 12 tons of soft sand were donated by USS Cal Builders to Knott Avenue Early Childhood Development Center in Anaheim.
Stanton City Councilman David Shawver heard that the school had a need for sand under its new swings and orchestrated the donation between the company and school.
"We are so excited for our new swing set and beautiful sand," said Preschool Director April Garcia. "The children have really enjoyed it and we are blessed to have David Shawver's grandchildren attend our preschool; their family has really been a blessing to our school."
"The kids let me know they are so happy with the new sand," said Shawver. "The sand has made a lot of difference."
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has guidelines for both public and home playground equipment that includes avoiding playgrounds with non-impact absorbing surfaces, recommending instead surface materials such as sand, pea gravel, wood chips, mulch and shredded rubber.
Rubber mats, synthetic turf and other artificial materials are also safe surfaces according to the safety commission. The surfacing needs to be at least 12 inches deep and extend at least 6 feet in all directions around stationary equipment and depending on the height of the play equipment, surfacing might need to extend farther than 6 feet.
For swings, surfacing needs to extend in the back and front, twice the height of the suspending bar. For example, if the top of a swing set is 10-feet-high, surfacing needs to extend 20 feet.
"I came on board here in the summer of 2012," said Garcia. "Since then we have been upgrading our facility as much as we can. We got a new playground set, repainted the rooms and remodeled our preschool office last summer and this school year we have been knocking down walls to expand, remodeled our playground bathroom and got new swings and are excited to see what else God has for our little school."
Garcia said up until the summer of 2013, they were a morning enrichment center for children until they noticed a need for before and after care as well for children ages 2-to-6-years old.
"Children attend September through June and we also have an optional summer program with before and after care as well and this fall we will be open a kindergarten class," Garcia said. "We pride ourselves in classrooms no larger than 12 children per class, enabling each child to receive the care and guidance they need and our staff is CPR and First Aid certified."
