Last fall, the YWCA of Asheville was looking to spruce up and re-think the playground behind its downtown Asheville facility, where as many as 50 young children play five days a week. An Asheville landscaper put the organization in touch with Haynie, who creates rock sculptures, walls and other stone structures for residential and business clients. After she sized up the project, Haynie decided to donate her time and labor to building a fountain and rock-ringed sandbox for the YWCA, which got grants and donations to pay for Haynie’s materials. In total, Haynie estimates the project would have cost around $15,000.
For a week in late April, Haynie and a crew excavated some 20 to 30 feet in the side of a hill behind the YWCA, where Haynie then placed huge river stones from the Linville Gorge area. Because the children playing in the space are all five or under, Haynie took care to smooth the stones’ rough corners. Now, a dozen children can splash in a rectangular trickling fountain that sits at the top of a Zen-like rock trail.
Haynie, who is 50, says she spent many childhood days splashing around in a creek and laments the fact that so many modern children spend hours playing in plastic balls at McDonald’s. “If I hadn’t played in the creek, I wouldn’t be doing what I was doing,” she says. “I think it was therapy, a bit of escape. If one kid is affected in that way, that’s a good thing. At least it’s a natural escape.”
SOURCE
http://www.vervemag.com/may-2012/2012/5/1/rock-of-all-ages.html
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