Last weekend, I was one of an estimated 1,500 volunteers who built a playground – a story of resilience I couldn’t have captured without personally experiencing the staying power of Mississippi red clay and losing a pair of beloved boots to the mud. 

Jeannie’s Place at Planet Playground, just like its namesake, Jeannie Null, has a power to bring a community together despite the nay-saying and negativity.

I spent only 17 hours at the site over the course of three days but others spent many more. There was “Red,” or Brian Winstead, who taught many, many novice volunteers the basics of his career in construction: that the triangle-shaped measuring tool was actually called a square, how to set up a jig to speed up repetitive work and adjust the saw blade on an angle. He would sing silly songs as he went around the site, cheering up spirits soaked by the rain and mud.

Bonnie Holloman became a “carpenter,” spending hours at the same saw she’d only just learned to use a few days prior. An occupational therapist by trade, I never saw Bonnie without a smile as she monotonously cut dozens of similar pieces in browns, blues and greens.

Together, Brittany Butler, a second-grade teacher, and I tried to cut the same piece of fencing four times before a far more experienced design team member told us that the mistakes weren’t ours. For Brittany, it was just her fifth day on the job at a playground she hoped to bring her own classes to someday.

Laura Moffett, a social worker, had never worked with power tools before but clearly took pride in her new skills acquired after a weekend of volunteering. We drilled and prepped more than 400 balusters with Kate Gibson, a reporter for WTOK, over five hours on Sunday. By day’s end, our elbows were so sore we could barely lift them.

Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Dalton Sarlow, Yeoman 1st Class Carrie Lepicier, Null family member Dennis Null and fine arts professor John Marshall and I built a series of rainbow-colored platforms, folding ourselves into impossible shapes to squeeze into child-sized holes and drill underneath the platforms. We thought of ourselves as trolls, joking even as we lost another screw to the mud.

Aionna “Yani” Williams and Drew Whitten, both with Americorps, probably faced the worst of it. Like other Americorps volunteers, they spent much of the week digging many of the 400 holes by hand – even after a full day of work. On Sunday, they lay flat on their stomachs to reach low-lying boards, rewarded for their efforts with mud from head to toe.

Each of the 1,500 volunteers worked tirelessly to make things just right for the community playground. Nothing short of perfection would suffice when it came to children or adults with physical limitations. 

I don’t always get to write stories about hope or about people coming together. I primarily cover government meetings or crime – both divisive arena that often spark more arguments than resolutions. Even on my “positive stories,” many of the comments I receive are negative.

But at Jeannie’s Place, we all worked toward a common goal. We weren’t divided into groups of haves and have nots or city and county. Our many, many professions didn’t matter as much as our attitudes. Even the red and blue name tags, a distinction meant to show a volunteer’s comfort with power tools, lost their meaning by the end of the week.

I’d like to recognize the government officials who came during the build week. Though my job requires that I hold them accountable to the public, sometimes a source of friction, the build was nothing but good news as each gave what they could to the project: county supervisor Jonathan Wells, council members Fannie Johnson and George Thomas, and Mayor Percy Bland. Though not elected, I saw Richie McAlister and Julia Norman, both with the City of Meridian, taking on some of the most difficult jobs throughout the week.

As for the other elected representatives who didn’t make it this week, I’m sure we’ll see them in March.

If anybody missed a chance to be part of the biggest community effort I’ve seen in my 30 months in Meridian, there will be another opportunity next month. From March 14 to 17, volunteers will be needed to finish the project and make the accessible playground a reality. Even one hour of time can make the biggest difference, but I’ll bet most volunteers will stick around longer than that. 

And if Jeannie’s Place has a magical ability to bring people together now, despite their differences, then I can’t wait to see the joy it’ll bring to our community in just a few short weeks.

Whitney Downard covers government and public safety issues for The Meridian Star.