MILO – When it’s for the kids, you can count on residents pitching in like they did Saturday at Milo Elementary School.

About 50 people, including employees from JSI, O&R Lumbra Inc., Maine Savings Federal Credit Union, Camden National Bank, members of the local Parent Teacher Organization, teachers and residents, rolled up their sleeves to play hard in the sand Saturday.

Actually, it was more work than play as the volunteers constructed the first stage of a new playground for the pupils. When the volunteers arrived, the playground equipment was on pallets and looked like jigsaw puzzle parts. Working throughout the day, the men and women assembled the first stage of the two-phase playground project.

“They’ve just been working their butts off, it’s just been great,” Karen Graham, Milo Elementary PTO president, said Saturday of the workers.

The PTO raised $17,000 in two years to purchase a portion of the playground equipment, and now are raising an additional $17,000 to complete the second part of the project, which includes additional playground equipment and grading and seeding of an adjacent field.

To jump-start the second fundraising phase, the Maine Community Foundation awarded the PTO a $3,500 grant. Graham said Ken Woodbury of the Piscataquis County Economic Development Council wrote the grant. In addition, Camden National Bank on Saturday presented Graham a $1,000 check.

Another boost will be the proceeds from the JSI golf tournament to be held Friday, Aug. 22, at the Katahdin Country Club. The PTO and the Three Rivers Kiwanis Club are helping with the tournament, and the organizations will split the proceeds, according to Graham.

Graham is confident that the remainder of the funds can be raised in a year.

“Our goal is to get the next phase in next summer,” she said.

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