Community rallies around Falkirk area playgroup following wood theft
A community has rallied around its local playgroup after wood intended for enhancing its outdoor play area was stolen.
The timber, which was worth around £1000, was taken from outside Polmont Playgroup’s new premises in Redding Road, Brightons during the early hours of Monday, August 4.
The theft came as a blow to the playgroup, which is a registered charity, as the team of volunteers had been hoping to have a new playhouse completed in time for the start of the new term this week.
In a bid to fund replacement wood to complete the work, the playgroup launched a GoFundMe page as reported in last week’s Falkirk Herald.
Now, however, thanks to the generosity of the community and local businesses the playhouse has been completed ahead of the open days on Thursday and Friday, with the mud kitchens and sand pit to follow.
The team at the playgroup are expressing their thanks to all who have helped following their plea.
Lia Jarvis, treasurer of Polmont Playgroup explained: “After having the wood stolen, we were encouraged to launch a GoFundMe page as we received requests from our wonderful community asking how they could donate to help us. In 24 hours we had raised close to £600 in order to purchase wood required to complete our playhouse, mud kitchens and sandpit.
“Additionally local joiner, Callum from Revival Joinery helped co-ordinate offers from IBT, MGM Timber and International Timber (Grangemouth) to help replace and deliver the wood we needed to complete our outdoor play area, therefore we closed our GoFundMe page.
"A team from Careys have helped endlessly with getting our outdoor space ready for opening on Thursday, including digging out the entire play area and then laying our synthetic turf and bouncy playground tiles - we are very grateful to them! They pulled together this week to finish off our playhouse to make it safe and fun for our children.”
With the timber being donated from the local businesses, the money raised from the online fundraising page will be used for the nails, screws and other ironmongery and finishing touches.
Polmont Playgroup had been running for 52 years in Polmont before moving to Brightons this summer, where the charity now owns its own premises.
It’s been a labour of love for the volunteers to get the new home ready for the start of the new term – and they have had a lot of community help to make it happen.
As well as all the support with the outdoor space, other local groups, businesses and organisations have been a huge help.
Lia continued: “We have had a great deal of support from Chris and his Tesco Property team. Tesco dedicated their time and resources to us to replace old heating pipes and install wet wall surfaces, working around the wonderful team from KD Kitchens who donated our full kitchen and kids’ craft sinks. The interior of the playgroup would not look as good as it does today without them both.
“We have had a team of volunteers from M&G, William Hill, Lloyds Banking Group and Certas Energy all come to help us, but next week we have volunteers from B&Q coming to help with the remaining tasks, where we hope to finish our mud kitchens and sand pit to allow the children to take full advantage before we lose the nice weather.
"We also had a very generous donation from, the now closed, Bowhouse Community Centre which brightened up our week completely. They have donated their much loved and looked after soft play to us and helped deliver and build it also. It fits perfectly in our setting and the kids love playing in it. It’s been an instant hit and we know it will provide lots of fun for all of our upcoming birthday party bookings.”
The playgroup will be running on weekday mornings during term time however, the charity are looking to let out their space in the afternoons, evenings and weekends. Any groups looking for a fun and bright space are urged to get in touch by emailing [email protected].