PASCAGOULA -- More than 300 volunteers showed up on the campus of Cherokee Elementary Friday morning to build the Ka-BOOM! playground, and the 8-hour workday was cut in half.
As the sun rose over the campus, activity had already begun with volunteers digging holes, moving mulch and building benches.
Justin Fitzgerald, Ka-BOOM! project manager, was amazed with the volunteer turnout and energy.
"This turnout is just amazing and so is the energy being displayed," Fitzgerald said. "I just had 145 cubic yards of mulch moved in less than an hour. That never happens. We are better than on schedule."
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Working alongside Fitzgerald was Sarah Pinsky, director of Operation Playground. She agreed with Fitzgerald saying that even early in the morning, this was one of the fastest builds ever.
"It's not just the number of volunteers who came out today, but how hard everybody is working," Pinsky said. "We have had a lot of people come out for builds before but never to move as quickly as these are doing."
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