Elizabeth Twp. playground gets upgrade from Home Depot

The project included 350 bags of black recycled rubber mulch.

Staff and crew from The Home Depot came to Elizabeth Township on Thursday to upgrade some of the Mt. Vernon Fields playground.

Participants from four stores in North Versailles, West Mifflin, Greensburg and a vacationing friend from the North Port, Fla., store put out 350 bags of black recycled rubber mulch, pegs and fabric worth around $5,200 through a grant through The Home Depot Foundation.

The foundation works to improve the homes and lives of U.S. veterans, train skilled tradespeople to fill the labor gap and support communities impacted by natural disasters as well as help out communities with projects.

According to the foundation’s website, it has invested more than $550 million in veterans’ causes and improved more than 65,000 veterans’ homes and facilities since 2011. It has pledged to invest $750 million in veterans’ causes by 2030 and $50 million in training the next generation of skilled tradespeople through the Path to Pro program.

Team Depot is part of the foundation, and every quarter there is an event where workers go to volunteer. Since 2011, they have helped 14,000 nonprofits with playgrounds, mulch, building wheelchair ramps for veterans while volunteering 2.5 million hours in local communities.

Ryan Darazio, an Elizabeth Township resident and store manager at The Home Depot in West Mifflin, said the foundation gives workers the chance to create connections with their neighborhoods.

“What we were able to do for Elizabeth Township was to get them a grant,” Darazio said. “Through the volunteer component of Team Depot, we were able to get 14 volunteers and we went up there and we got it all spread out. We cleaned up the old mulch and fabric and were able to spread those seven pallets of rubber mulch.”

The rubber mulch makes a difference from a sustainability aspect, according to Darazio, and is safer if a child falls.

He wanted to make a difference at that playground because his children play there, and said it’s one of the busiest fields he has ever seen.

“I kept seeing the amount of children using that particular playground,” Darazio said. “They will have three baseball games going at a time. Every family has their kids there, so if they have other children, those children are usually on the playground. I just saw how much abuse the wooden mulch was taking. It just struck me that it would be the perfect Team Depot project that would get a ton of use, so it’s kind of the perfect scenario for us.

“It’s pretty awesome the things they let us do from a company perspective, and like I said, they fully support it and we are able to get those grants covered too. We’ll give funds, nonprofits will use those funds to buy materials then we come out and do all the labor. So it’s pretty cool.”

Township commissioner Chris Thoma said many children will be able to enjoy the playground for years to come.

Elizabeth Forward Youth Athletics, which offers baseball, softball basketball for boys and girls from ages 4 to 18, extended its “heartfelt thanks” to the foundation for its generosity and hard work at the playground as well as the team for its commitment to improving community spaces.

“Not only did they donate 100 percent of the materials, but their amazing team also contributed their time and labor to make this project a reality,” EFYA wrote in a Facebook post. “The transformation is truly something special!”