Mark Caddo of the United Way of Greater Cincinnati, reports on union members and corporate executives who came together to rebuild a school playground in Walton, Ky.

The Early Learning Center at Walton-Verona Elementary School is nestled between two farms in the rolling hills of Walton, Ky., near Cincinnati. Late last month, with a heat index above 100 degrees, members of the UAW, United Steelworkers (USW), AFSCME and the Laborers (LIUNA) partnered with United Way of  Greater Cincinnati’s latest crop of  volunteer “loaned executives” from local businesses to help rebuild the school playground. The play area had been  destroyed by recent strong storm winds and  the wear and tear of  two years of daily school ground play.

When the crew showed up, the ground was bare and covered with weeds. The kids hadn’t been able to get out there to play for weeks. Everyone knew we had a job to do and we were all determined to do it. As soon as we determined what we each wanted to do, we hunkered down, picked up shovels or wheelbarrows. We worked on the playground plants or evened out the mulch others put down. We built oversized plastic castles, set down the mulch for the playground, pulled weeds and found out that the green Gatorade is quite tasty

All and all, the day was a success, even though everyone was covered in grime and sweat from head to toe. We could really say we weren’t just wearing T-shirts with our slogan “living united,” but everyone was actually doing it. Everyone seemed to share the good feeling that we were giving the kids a place to relax after they work on bettering their minds.

The work we did wasn’t on the scale of rebuilding after Katrina or the current floods across the Midwest, but it did make a difference. We found that out a week later, when the group received a message from one of the mothers whose children use the playground. She said:

My two boys use this playground every day-especially my youngest son who has special needs and attends the special needs pre-school.  I wanted to… let…the United Way group… know…how much their time and effort meant to our family-we really appreciate it!