There's a list of projects over here:
http://www.kaboom.org/DoItYourselfResources/SideProjects/tabid/99/Default.aspx
If you have trouble with any of the instructions, just drop me a line (alee@kaboom.org). We've got lots of folks with good experience here. What works and what doesn't? Who has seen something really creative done as a side project?
(For those who are new to the forums and might not know what a "side project" is: It's something to do on a community build playground project other than hauling mulch, mixing concrete or endlessly holding up playground structures while the bits and pieces get bolted on. Side projects are things that get done outside of building the main equipment structures. It's also an awfully good opportunity to really let the personality of the community show.)
For us, it involved looking at what else needed to be done around our school, i.e. kind of making a wish-list of things and prioritizing which would be fulfilled "first" if we had enough help, and the lower priority items were at the bottom of the list, as a "if we get time, or have enough people" stipulation. Things like planting evergreen/flowering bushes is always nice, laying out beauty bark--bark makes garden areas look so much nicer, stepping stones are another nice one to do, repainting foursquare or hopscotch lines is nice... just look around at your area and see what needs to be done. For benches, I would have liked to have had a group making a nice wooden bench but our district preferred that they be the manufacturer kind, in cement. We did have a group re-do some older benches around the back side of the school, that were already timber and concrete. So whatever side projects you plan, just run them by your organization to make sure that they fall within the 'rules'. It would have been a shame if I had put people on making mendocino benches out of wood, only to have the district tell me later that they would not meet standard--ASK before you PLAN, definitely.