Pawlowski going to Haiti to install playground

[CatholicBoy1957]

Pawlowski going to Haiti to install playground
Allentown’s mayor will take a week off this month to give devastated island a lift.

By Andrew McGill, OF THE MORNING CALL

11:05 p.m. EDT, June 15, 2011

Ed Pawlowski is well accustomed to stories of rebirth — as mayor of Allentown, he heads a Rust Belt city that’s still recovering.

One of the city’s prouder moments last year was the opening of a state-of-the-art playground at Cedar Creek Park, designed to be accessible to all. Bright and colorful, it stood for more than just a new place to play.

Now, Pawlowski wants to bring that playground — and that hope — to Haiti.

Traveling with a church group, he’ll join city Parks Director Greg Weitzel and Playworld Systems manager Julie Rearick later this month in building a playground in Carrefour, a coastal city just west of the capital, Port-au-Prince. Though smaller, it’ll mimic the playset Playworld Systems of Lewisburg, Union County, installed last year in Allentown — and it’ll be free.

A local news commentator wondered on-air about the possibility of a starving Haitian child’s first thought being how he’d love a teeter-totter.

Pawlowski, by the way, is from Chicago.

mcall.com/news/breaking/mc-allentown-haiti-playground-20110615,0,2298538.story

 

[Dale_M]

Pawlowski going to Haiti to install playground
A local news commentator wondered on-air about the possibility of a starving Haitian child’s first thought being how he’d love a teeter-totter.

Well, commentators often use rhetoric rather than logic.

This seems like a nice gesture. The city of Allentown had old playground equipment they weren’t using And while it is true that children need to eat, they also need to play. This will provide something which would otherwise go lacking.

There are many aid missions in Haiti which address basics such as food. clean water, and housing. They could use donations, if anyone is concerned about the issue. Here is one possible group to consider:
crs.org/countries/haiti