Elm Grove enjoys new playground

By Alice Allison Special Contributor

Elm Grove Elementary opened their new playgrounds to the public on April 5 after much anticipation. The construction took six months from November until April. The playground features many different types of activities like swings, tall slides and other hands-on equipment.

“The new playgrounds provide opportunities for imaginative play,” Elm Grove principal Cassie Pfeifer said. “There’s additional types of equipment, such as swings and a pour in place play surface for fall protection and handicap accessibility.”

Installing new playgrounds was needed in order for the students of Elm Grove Elementary to have a safe, fun playground to play on during recess. The previous playgrounds had rust and various unsafe types of equipment. Because of a recent bond that was passed, every elementary school playground in Humble ISD is being rebuilt with safety and fun in mind.

“Students are enjoying the new features that are now a part of the playground,” Pfeifer said. “This is especially true of the swings. This is the first time we have had swings at EGE in many years.”

With construction taking six months to complete, many students and staff had anticipated opening day. During this time, teachers had to buy their own equipment to keep the students entertained in a small environment. Because of this, the day the playground opened was a day full of excitement.

“I will never forget the way my fourth graders screamed like it was Christmas morning when they ran out the fourth grade doors in anticipation of seeing the new playground for the first time,” said Anita McKeague, a 4th grade teacher at Elm Grove Elementary.

“It had been five months that they patiently waited and I will always remember how their eyes lit up.”

The new playgrounds have brought the community together after school as well. Many people go to the playgrounds to have picnics or simply just to play with friends.

“I see so many families playing together after school, rather than being at home,” McKeague said.

“They are interacting more, which also helps form new friendships between kids and parents in the community. Our kids take pride in our playground.”

“We had a good group that went with us,” HOSA instructor Leanna Rockwell said. “I felt like we were going to do really well. Everyone was prepared for it.”

HOSA is an organization that allows students going into the healthcare field a chance to apply their interests and knowledge into reallife situations to better prepare themselves for the future. This year’s competition provided students with a variety of events from which to choose.

“Each competition is different, so they each have their own set of guidelines that they have to review and know in order to succeed,” Rockwell said. “There are both individual and team events. Some students prepared by studying for tests or practicing skills that they then have to display in front of a judge.”

Since the first day of her freshman year, senior Mchaley Kayfes found a deep interest and passion for HOSA. She has been in HOSA for four years and displayed her leadership skills as vice president of the club. Kayfes competed in two events this year: mental health promotion and medical art.

She placed 5th in mental health promotion and first in medical art.

“HOSA has so many different competitions,” Kayfes said. “You just pick one that suits you. I am very passionate about art. I can do art all day long so I was like, let’s do it. Not going to lie, I wasn’t expecting to advance but that just made it special for me.”

Senior David Bell is the blood drive chair for HOSA. He joined his junior year after transferring from another school. He became involved and started volunteering as often as he could. Kingwood Park acquired the silver recognition for blood drive coordination.

The award is given out for collecting over 200 units of blood. This year alone, the school collected 273 units of blood with each unit having the ability to save three lives.

“State was really fun, I spent a lot of my time with Matti McDaniel, and we were courtesy courts so we didn’t really compete at state but we still helped run different competitions,” Bell said. “Our school is ranked one of the top for blood drives because we get a lot of donations through our student body.”

Senior Taryn Jones and junior David Gonzales both advanced to the international level in their separate events. Jones placed second in Medical Assisting and Gonzales was a finalist for Organized Leadership, allowing him to advance to be a voting delegate. The international competition will take place in Dallas from June 21-24.

Apart from pre-competition jitters, the students also managed to enjoy their free time at the resort with a range of water park and carnival rides provided by the hotel.

“One of my favorite memories from state is probably going on this big water ride with a giant dome opening,” said Kayfes. “I was absolutely terrified but everyone was rooting for me so I know I had the support.”