Saw Mill playground upgrades complete

The 700 students who attend Saw Mill Road Elementary School sat quietly on the blacktop behind the building as North Bellmore Superintendent Marie Testa approached a lectern last Friday.

The children clapped and screamed when Testa asked them to raise their hands if they had played on their new playground. The crowd erupted in more cheers when she told them to shake their hands if they liked the equipment.

Testa noted that the children weren’t the only ones who were happy about the playground upgrades. “All of the adults surrounding you care about it, and it’s because we care about you,” she told the students. “Everyone in the whole community knows that you’re children, and children love to play. But adults love to play too. We should all remember that, and we should give back through play.”

The Saw Mill Road PTA spearheaded a series of playground renovations that were completed this past summer. The school held a special ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new equipment on Sept. 19.

Melissa Grote, the mother of a Saw Mill third-grader and sixth-grader, serves as the PTA co-president with Maureen Cerati. She explained that a piece of playground equipment was removed about five years ago because it was deemed unsafe, so there weren’t enough apparatuses for the children to play on.

“We had so many children and so few playground pieces,” Grote said. “There was truly a need.”

The PTA began raising money for playground equipment through golf outings, raffles and other fundraisers. Grote and Cerati said they raised $20,000, but they needed more. Two years ago, they reached out to Nassau County Legislator Dave Denenberg, who secured a $40,000 Community Development Grant for the Saw Mill playground.

At the ceremony, Saw Mill Road Principal Jeffrey Rosof said he sees all the smiles and hears all of the happy voices coming from the new equipment every day at recess. He noted this was an important part of the school day.

"Every day in the schedule, we make sure that there’s time for you to have recess," he said. "As long as the weather is nice, you will be outside here for that recess to play with your classmates, make new friends and have fun.”