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The St. Petersburg Playground Project

It was in July 2002 while attending a Tom Sine seminar in Abbotsford, BC, that the dream of building a playground was birthed. Since that time individuals, families & churches from across Canada & the USA have donated money to help make the dream of a safe & clean place for St. Petersburg children to play into a reality.

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Thank You...

...to all who prayed and gave to make the St. Petersburg Playground Project a reality. The project began in July 2002 with a dream (read more about it here) and was completed in September 2005.

How It Came To Be

Before anything, there was dirt...

For those of you who have never been to Russia, it's probably hard to imagine how big of a deal a playground is, but consider this: almost all children in St. Petersburg live in and play in cramped apartments; they have no idea what a backyard is; they cannot play outside without careful supervision; their play areas are invariably covered with cigarette butts, garbage, broken bottles and dog feces; the playground equipment outside is in serious disrepair, and is often outright dangerous to use (thankfully there has been a lot of improvement in this regard in the past three years). A safe place to play: this is the simple-sounding goal that, Lord willing, will help transform a neighbourhood!

The courtyard near our home: a couple of benches and lots of bare ground. It was an over-tracked area used by passers-by, party-seekers and moms looking to give their babies some semi-fresh air. Unfortunately the benches were constantly moved around and sometimes disappeared completely!

The only playground in our area: run-down and garbage-filled. This is the playground built for the local kindergarten but has fallen into severe disrepair. It is used by children and families only because there is nothing better in the area.

In spring another problem is revealed: very depressed ground, making play areas unusable. This was the area we had originally hoped to develop, but a surprise gift changed our plans...

Along came a gift!

One day in August 2004, the city dropped off a playground structure in front of our building. It was a great gift, but unfortunately they choose to place it in the middle of a heavily-trafficked courtyard. The placement was obviously determined by the ease of setup for the city workers, without any serious consideration for actual use. The placement of this new equipment forced us to reconsider our plans to build the playground in a neighbouring courtyard.

Over the next several weeks a few more pieces of equipment arrived, solidifying this courtyard as the only option for our playground development. The problem with the location the city choose was quickly revealed come autumn. The ground in that courtyard was so worn down that any amount of rainfall (or melted snow) would produce long-lasting mud puddles.

The New Plan

During the winter we revised our plan and by the time spring 2005 rolled around we had calculated the needed equipment and service orders and had officially requested funds from MBMSI.

The new plan consisted of a large playground structure for small children, climbing bars, a teeter-totter, complete re-surfacing, a fence and, for outside the playground, benches and even a picnic table!

Building the playground

In early June we finalized permission and plans with municipal authorities regarding playground development. Very thankfully we found a receptive ear with the municipal contractor, Sergei. Lena met with him several times to go over the plan.

Once the money wire from MBMSI was received, Lena brought down payments to both the city and "Ksil" the playground equipment manufacturer.

The first sign of new development was benches. One of the first things we asked the city workers to provide was additional benches for the courtyard, so that people would be less tempted to use the sandboxes and structures for their "rest stops".

How much time do you North Americans spend sitting on public benches? Not much, I imagine! Here the situation is such that people are constantly looking for places to sit and smoke, eat or drink (usually all of the above). With a high percentage of Russians dependant on public transit, the sidewalks are constantly filled, and the passageways between buildings frequently criss-crossed.

With so much walking to do, people are understandably in need of an occasional rest. Unfortunately, having grown up in a country where everything belonged to the "people" it is all too common for people to sit anywhere they like, and to leave whatever they no longer need wherever they feel like.

That's the problem: everyday hundreds of people pass by the playground, many stopping, smoking, drinking and littering. Cigarette butts, trash and broken bottles are a common sight. This is why we are purchasing benches for the area outside of the playground, fencing off the play area and will be actively involved in caring for the courtyard. It is our prayer that a well-cared-for playground will be respected by those who pass by and will become and remain a safe place to play.

The next step in building the playground was getting the fencing installed and surface prepared. Sergei's city crew did a good job of fencing in the territory and building-up the surface.

It's been an interesting beginning for the new playground. Several babushkas were upset by the fencing (it seems no one consulted them!) and the day after the fence work was complete, several guys moved one of the new benches into the playground (opposite a sandbox) and proceeded to have a very messy party:

We made a big mistake with the benches: we didn't root them in place! After seeing this mess we called up the municipality foreman and paid his crew to place the benches in their proper places and sink them all into concrete!

We've had some other problems as well: the fence gate fell off (due to poor welding and swinging kids), and Lena recently discovered a blood-filled syringe inside the playground. On the positive side, the playground has been heavily used by families, and many have made positive comments to Lena (most expressing surprise that the city finally did something right--they were even more surprised when Lena told them that the playground was gift from North American believers!!!).

Lena is also taking advantage of the new play area by organizing games for kids. Praise God that the dream has come true and we can now better reach out to the families in our neighbourhood!

We had to wait until early September before the remaining equipment was finally delivered and set up. But it was worth it! On September 17 the crew assembled the last of the playground equipment, bringing to a successful completion the three-month construction project. While Maya & Deena were happily testing the new play structures Lena was being blessed by grateful parents and neighbours. Many came up to her with words of gratitude and praise. Lena told each of them that this playground was a gift from God and from His people. Many shook their heads in wonder at such an answer!!!

The new playground continues to bless families in our neighbourhood. (To be honest, we didn't realize how many kids lived around here until the playground was finished!) It's been exciting to see the reaction of parents as they cautiously approach the playground, see that it is open to the public, then relax and enjoy! (Most "prepared" playgrounds in the city are guarded or behind locked gates for the private use of schools or closed communities.)

This brings to a successful conclusion the dream begun three years ago. Thanks to MBMS International for turning Lena's dream into a public project; to churches, Sunday Schools, families and individuals who raised money for the project; and to all who saw it through to completion with their prayers. Praise be to God!!!

The Original Story

We have a dream... For some time now Lena & I have had a burden to minister to our neighbourhood. We have prayed for opportunities to bring God's love to the lost and hurting in our midst. As part of our MBMSI seminars in July 2002, we were part of the Tom & Christine Sine seminar in Abbotsford. There we were challenged to think of ways that we could impact our community with Christ's love. In our subsequent small group Lena shared an inspiration that she just had: to rebuild our local playground for the children of our neighbourhood. After the discussion time, people were invited to the front to share their ideas with the audience. Lena literally pushed me out of my seat (even though it was her idea!), so I made my way to the microphone and shared. When I returned to my seat, the couple seated in front of us turned around and asked us how the cheque should be made out! Wow--within 10 minutes of the idea, we had 200 USD with which to begin!

Returning home, Lena immediately set upon the task to research the work involved. She bought several publications listing construction firms and began calling. She also had several frustrating calls and one fruitless visit with the local city works office, where she did learn that the city had no plans to develop a playground in our area, but was unable to find out how much it would cost to make it happen. After waiting for 40 minutes in his office, Lena was given a 5-minute audience with the local city works head. The official wasn't interested in details, he just wanted to know much money Lena had to spend--he said that they would spend whatever she had! Lena is now talking with construction companies directly, trying to determine the costs for the project.

In our immediate neighbourhood (our "block") there are approximately 800 apartments (in 7 buildings). That's several hundred school or pre-school children and there is but one run-down playground (belonging to the local kindergarten, housed in our building) and a half-dozen broken pieces of equipment scattered around the area. Our dream is to fix up a small, semi-wooded area away from smoking youth and drunks. We envision some quality playground equipment, seats for parents, flowers and lots of garbage cans ;-) (this city faces a chronic shortage of such!). This project is still in its infancy, but Lena already has several offers of help to plant flowers! We will continue to update you on the project as it develops. We welcome your suggestions & questions!

Original Detailed Plan

he following is here for interest-sake.

In brief, the plan is to construct a playground suitable for children ages 2-12. The plan calls for a completely resurfaced (shale & sand) area (approximately 250 sq. m.), a large playground structure, two sets of swings, a sandbox, three benches and a decorative fence surrounding the area.

Here is the breakdown of the cost of the project as drawn up October 2002:

*Approximate amount in Canadian dollars as of October 2002