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Q erst arnews.com http://erstarnews.co m/2013/04/25/a Id-playgrounds-to-bring-new-life-elsewhere/ <br /> Old playgrounds get new life overseas <br /> By Joni Astrup on April 25, 2013 at 422 pm <br /> by Joni Astrup <br /> Associate editor <br /> Two aging playgrounds in Elk River will see new life in a foreign land. <br /> The Elk River City Council donated the playground <br /> equipment at Orono Park and Baldwin Park to the <br /> nonprof it KIDS Around the World. Part of the <br /> organization's mission is to build playgrounds for children a, <br /> in underprivileged locations outside the United States. <br /> Volunteers from Wayzata Free Church dismantled and <; , <br /> removed the playground equipment at the two Elk River *.. -° <br /> parks recently in just a few hours. <br /> WPM <br /> "In Minnesota, this is our 28th playground we've taken out <br /> in three years," Paul Bierhaus said as the crew took apart <br /> the Baldwin Park playground on April 17. "Many of these <br /> guys have been on all of them. Some are new." <br /> Jon McCollum !left}and Joe Miller carried a part of the <br /> The playground equipment will be sent to Rockford, III., Baldwin Park playground to a waiting truck. Photo byJoni <br /> Astrup <br /> where it will be cleaned and refurbished for use in another <br /> country, likely Haiti, according to Bierhaus. <br /> Donated playgrounds from Woodbury and Plymouth ended up in Poland, <br /> according to Elk River Parks and Recreation Director Michael Hecker. <br /> Bierhaus has been volunteering with KIDS Around the World since 2000 and is ^ ` <br /> on the organization's board. He traveled internationally for 3M for many years • <br /> and now travels with KIDS Around the World. He has helped install playgrounds <br /> in about 30 countries. <br /> "Many, many places where we build playgrounds, they've never seen a <br /> playground," Bierhaus said. <br /> k" • <br /> He said its fun to take the playgrounds apart and then to rebuild them in S ., <br /> another country and see the joy kids experience playing on a playground for the F <br /> first time. <br /> "One of the things you never have to teach a child is how to play on a <br /> toN <br /> playground.They instinctively want to do that," he said. <br /> John Hannus tried out a piece <br /> Bierhaus said KIDS Around the World is a faith-based organization and has ofcqurprnent at Baldwin Park. <br /> Photo by Joni Astrup <br /> been in existence since 1995. j <br />