Feb. 18, 2006 — Children at Nana Baby Home in Annas Retreat recently received a new play area thanks to an on-going partnership between Caribe Tradewinds Masonic Lodge No. 589 and MSI Building Supplies.
Lodge members and MSI management met at the children's home over the course of several weekends to renovate the playground, according to a release. MSI contributed the play set as well as the machinery, dirt and engineering expertise needed to improve the playground's terrain.
"The lodge provided the man-power," Michael Veraat, lodge special deputy grand master, said. "We do have some members with experience in this sort of thing, but no licensed contractors. We gain experience from the projects we do."
First, volunteers moved an existing tree house to make room for the new set, then they leveled the ground to make it suitable as a playground. Finally, they set up the play set.
"We are elated. We think it is awesome and they did a magnificent job," Beulah Wilson, Nana Baby Children Home assistant director, said. "The children love it."
Wilson said the new play area gives the children an opportunity to climb and explore, activities they could not enjoy with the average swing set. She also says the new area allows the children to interact and share in their play.
"You can look at their faces and see the difference it has made to them. And we certainly thank everyone involved," Wilson said. "All of the people who worked on the project were so enthusiastic about what they were doing and we appreciate that. They did it as though we were a part of them."
The Nana Baby Children's Home playground is the second project on which the building supply company and the local Masonic lodge have joined forces. The first was the renovation of the Uller Muller School playground.
"We are committed to contributing and to working with organizations that have a positive impact on our community," Tommy Brunt, MSI Vice President for purchasing and sales, said. "We're pleased to support the Nana Baby Children's Home because they help the youngest, most dependent and most impressionable members of our community."
Established in 1989, Nana Baby Home for Children is an emergency foster home serving children from birth to age twelve who have been neglected and abandoned and need care. It is a private non-profit organization.
