What is the Krasnoyarsk Playground Project ?

Alex Griffith

My name is Alex Griffith. I was born in the City of Krasnoyarsk in the Siberian Region of the Russian Federation in 1993. My parents adopted me when I was 11 months old. I am now 15 years old and am a Life Scout in the Boy Scouts of America.

I have started working toward earning the rank of Eagle Scout, scouting’s highest honor. Earning the rank of Eagle Scout requires completing an Eagle Project, a service project helpful to any religious institution, school or community.

I would like to provide service to my birth home in Krasnoyarsk, Russia and have raised money to build a playground at the orphanage where I was adopted. You can read all about this project on this website, KrasPlayground.org.

Final Thoughts

A Russian worker scratched this message into the dirt and best summarizes our thoughts on this wonderful adventure

The size and magnitude of the Krasnoyarsk Playground Project can appear overwhelming, especially when you consider the numbers:

By the numbers:

634 people who contributed time, expertise, material or money  (106 from Russia)

78     cities where help came from

23 states where help came from

5 countries where help came from

$62,856 dollars raised of which  $14,297 donated for:

-          Continued maintenance of the playground-  $5,000.00

-          Construction of a 2^nd playground at tuberculosis hospital – $5,000.00

-          Construction of a 3rd playground at hospital for mentally ill – $4,297.00

838 hours spent by Alex

1,867 known hours spent by other volunteers (actual number probably close to double)

2,705 total known hours

524  work days spent by Alex

1449 Emails written

11,065 miles totem poles traveled

6,664 miles travel crew traveled

6,584 candy bars sold by 69 individuals or companies

1,474,816 calories consumed from candy bars sold

650 lbs of pit beef sold

90 lbs of ham sold

50 lbs of turkey sold

1,200 sandwiches sold

13 different crews worked to accomplish goal (not including work in Russia)

9 presentations given by Alex to promote the project

900,000 population of Krasnoyarsk

435 children in Children’s Hospital #20

16^th birthday celebrated by Alex at in birth home

6 people who traveled to Russia

$12,000 in private money spent to travel to Russia to install the playground

41 scouts from Troop 809 who helped

32 scouters from Troop 809 who helped

5 Rotary clubs that participated

2 Rotary districts that participated

6,587 lbs – Weight of everything shipped to Russia

72 cubic meters of sand installed

6 cubic meters of concrete installed

3,004 number of playground parts that had to be assembled

54 (and counting) Newspaper, magazine or internet articles or TV stories reaching over 120 million households that received positive message of scouting, Rotary and  adoption

These numbers are only numbers. Sure, just looking at them can be staggering but there is a huge lesson in these numbers – that is that anything, no matter how big or complicated can be accomplished by developing a plan and following through in a very consistent and methodical process of tackling one task at a time, and when complete moving on to the next task and not quitting or giving up until you do reach your goal. The only way this project got done is by Alex, from age 14 to 16 giving up 838 hours of his time on 524 days to work on his project to build a playground for the children of Krasnoyarsk. That is a huge commitment and sacrifice – think of all the TV shows that were missed, video games not played, bike jumps not attempted, movies not watched, DS games not played. It was a lot and a big sacrifice for Alex and only once did he say “I want to quit”. Many, many times he did not feel like doing the work, and he had to be pushed and prodded a lot, but at the end of the day he GOT THE JOB DONE!!!! Way to go Alex!!!!

Alex worked hard and long hours, but none of this would be possible without the effort of so many other people. As the numbers show, Alex had help from 634 people around the world. Some lent advice, some helped with fundraising, some donated materials or money and many went way beyond the call of duty and contributed countless hours to the cause, most of which were unrecorded hours of their own time or services their businesses provided to Alex. While we thank all those involved special thanks must go out to these people or companies whose tireless efforts  and expertise were critical to the project’s success:

Tatiana Khegay and all the members of the Krasnoyarsk-Yenisei Rotary Club.  Tatiana replied to Alex in August 2007 saying “she would be happy to help him in realization of his kind idea”. And help him she did. For two years Tatiana was Alex’s eyes and ears on the ground in Krasnoyarsk. She coordinated everything with the hospital and city government prior to our arrival, she arranged for the storage of the playground, she marshaled the forces of her Krasnoyarsk-Yenisei rotary club members who provided housing and transportation for the travel crew, dealt with everything we needed during installation and the many changes that occurred, gave the travel crew an experience that will never be forgotten of living life as a Russian and not a tourist and most important bestowed her love and friendship on us.

Linda Perilstein of the Cradle of Hope Adoption Center. It was a Cradle of Hope waiting children flyer that Dwight and Jenny first saw Alex’s pictures – without Cradle of Hope, Alex may very well still be in an orphanage. When Alex contacted Mrs. Perilstein for help, she directed to him to FRUA and OrphanAct which led to the contact with Tatiana and it was Mrs. Perilstein who suggested a new playground instead of repairing the existing playground.

Jay Van Duesen & Mark Welsh of the Bel Air Rotary Club and Neil Young of the Towsontowne Rotary Club. Jay and Mark pushed for approval of the Bel Air Rotary being the lead sponsor club and served as a vehicle for receipt of all donations for the project. Neal provided great help in securing the matching grant from the Rotary Foundation.

David Rice of Dartrans, Inc. David spent 5 months working out the logistics of shipping the playground, totem poles and other materials to Russia and provided the services of his company at no charge. He even helped to load the container. Without David Rice, the playground would still be sitting in Jarrettsville.

Tim Herculson, Ted Cheffy and Darrell Bennett from Boy Scout Troop 809. Mr Tim was Alex’s mentor guiding him through the very long process of project approval, rejection, re-approval and execution. Mr. Ted was the 1^st to stand up at the troop committee meeting and say “I’m in” and then devoted countless hours to arrange the donation of the totem pole logs and shipping them from Canada to Jarrettsville and the fumigation of the totem poles and other wood products. Mr. Darrell whose help with the pit beef fundraisers helped to raise the money needed. In all 41 scouts and 32 scouters from Troop 809 helped, there just is not enough space to thank everyone individually.

Julie Guinn-Bailey and Jason Lott of the Playworld Systems Inc. We had to change manufacturers of the playground half way through, and Julie worked tirelessly and forever to help with design, redesign, provided discounted pricing and then held the price through two company price increases and recorded hundreds of phone calls and emails working out the project details with Alex. Jason’s expertise in installation provided the crew with critical knowledge that enabled them to get the playground installed properly and professionally with 4 teenagers and a crew of non English speaking kids half way around the world.

Randi Boni and Rick Pratt. These chainsaw artist put their heart and soul into the design and crafting of the beautiful totem pole entry benches. Randi traveled from Tennessee and Rick from New York to converge in Maryland to carve the totem poles.

Rick Edie of Kefauver Lumber. Kefauver Lumber became the USA home of the Krasnoyarsk Playground Project. Five pit beef fundraisers were held there, the totem poles were carved there and then displayed for 7 months in the store, the shipping and crating process took place there and then in April, we took over a large area of the parking lot to receive the playground and do the quality check and pre-assembly. Without Mr. Rick allowing us to use Kefauver Lumbers facilities, executing these important task would be near impossible.

Christian Posko, Shane Rymer and Dave and Zach Kraft of the travel crew. Along with my dad, these 4 guys did everything with Alex. Christian led the marketing, purchasing and safety and security crews. Zack led the installation instruction and procedure crew. Shane gave up his last couple of weeks of fun to travel to Russia with us – 10 days after returning from Russia, Shane shipped off to Paris Island to begin serving our country as a United States Marine. Mr. Dave is the best Scoutmaster ever, taking a month off work and traveling half way around the world to help one of his scouts – he made a promise to Alex and he kept it.  All of them traveled to Pennsylvania to tour the Playworld factory and get installation tips, spent 8 days in April doing the quality check and preassemble and then spent over $2,000 of their own money to travel half way around the world to help install the playground. Alex may have been the TV star, but these guys were the real stars of the Krasnoyarsk Playground Project.

Personal thoughts from the travel crew: Here are the personal thoughts from the crew:

Zach Kraft: Most of my feelings I can not put into words, but I have a few I can. First, to be in another country with five other great people was just awesome . Also, to see how we all dealt with and handled all the hard times and changes- nothing, nothing could have prepared us for that. But that’s what boy scouts do to us, they make us prepared to handle and deal with any situation that is thrown at us. Another feeling is to see all the other playgrounds around the city in very poor conditions, and then have us come in and build a miracle (as all Russians put it) and be the first to do it, is something great beyond belief. Lastly, to see the smiles, hear the laughter, and just feel the all around happy atmosphere was but far the best thing that has happened in my life, no doubt. I thank everyone that supported this project and I thank Alex to give me and my father the chance to travel half a world away to do something many people would have seen as impossible!!!!!! 

Dave Kraft: It is hard for me to write my final thoughts on this project.  Yes as a Scoutmaster you try to work on every Eagle project that your Troop has.  My first Eagle project that I worked on was in 1984, it was my future brother-in-law at the time.  Since then I have worked on approximately 17 more projects.  I am always proud of all of my Scouts and the work that they accomplish.  The pride that I feel for Alex and the sense of accomplishment that I have with this project cannot be easily written in words.  Alex acted as I thought he would in Krasnoyarsk , but we have to remember that this is Alex.  I would not have wanted him any other way.  Traveling and finishing the project with 5 of my closest friends was a feat that will not be equaled again in my life. Zach, Shane and Posko have participated in high adventure with me and I share a feeling with them like no other Scout and now Alex fits into that category.  You have to admit that these young Scouts really and truly did a MAN’S job while we were in Russia, and I am very PROUD of them. I am very proud to be associated with Alex and this project.  The families in Russia have changed my feelings on foreign people and have left a mark on my life that cannot be erased.  It was a very emotional trip for me.  The children that watched us work, that tried to help and especially those that I watched play on the completed playground have burned a place in my heart and will truly never be forgotten.  I will close with this thought:  Zach received an e-mail from Zhenya (one of the twins) , she , Misha and Sasha went to check on the playground the other day……..even though it was raining that day there was still plenty of children on the playground, laughing and enjoying (our) Alex’s project.  Now we know that its use is exactly what we had hoped it would be.  God Bless Russia.  God Bless America.  God Bless Boy Scouts. AND God Bless our Travel Crew!!!!!!!!!

Dwight and Alex

Thanks for the opportunity to travel with you and to work on this project.  It is something that will never be forgotten.  You are very special people and you will always have a special place in my heart.

Sincerely,

Dave Kraft

Scoutmaster

Troop 809

Christian Posko: What can be said about this project? Fantastic, miraculous, and incredible are a few of the words that could be chosen as adjectives to describe one of the most inspirational projects that have been seen through in these past years.

I can remember when Alex first dreamt up this idea of his, to build a playground in his birth home. Many people were skeptical as to whether a young man could ever pull off a project of such caliber. Many of these same people thought it was a child’s fantasy that would end in the pre-planning stages. They were sorely mistaken. Alex has surpassed all expectations, taken down every opponent and overcome all obstacles this project has thrown his way. He is one of the most energetic, promising, and spectacular young men I have ever met.

This project is not just one of a young man giving back to his homeland, but one of international strengthening and stereotype breaking. I can remember one of the people I stayed with asked me what my thoughts were of Russia before I had visited. I had told them that our government feared us into the mindset of Russia being the “evil empire,” as Ronald Reagan had called it during his presidency. He asked me if my opinion had differed since my arrival in the country. I responded by telling him that his people are more generous and more friendly to foreigners than some Americans are to each other, let alone people who are the least bit different from them. I challenge every American to break my assumption of my fellow countrymen, just like the Russians showed me I was wrong about them.

The project exposed me to so many new people and things, that if I were to make a list of the things I experienced, I would need a Bible-sized book to write them down in. I am blessed to have had the opportunity to take part in a project that connects and betters the lives of so many people. Thank you, Alex, for letting me help you make the world a better place.

But someone else deserves a thanks, equal if not more than Alex: Mr. Dwight. If Mr. Dwight hadn’t adopted Alex 15 years ago, none of us would be connected in the same way at all. His guidance to Alex has been vital in keeping the project going from start to finish. In my eyes, Mr. Dwight is one of the single finest men I have ever had the privledge of meeting in my life. My hat is off to him, he deserves it.

That is all.

Shane Rymer: Shane is now about 3 weeks into boot camp at Paris Island as a future United States Marine and is not available to submit his personal thoughts. When he does, we will post it right away. We can tell you that Shane had a great experience while in Russia and his enthusiasm, spirit and hard work will always be remembered. Be safe our friend and GOD Bless you!

Dwight and Alex: Every word posted on these final thoughts(and the entire website) are a compilation of the personal thoughts and experiences of a father and son working together for 2 ½ years to bring a playground to Children’s Hospital #20 and return Alex to his roots. We hope you have enjoyed sharing this very moving and personal experience with us as much as we have enjoyed sharing it with the world.

Overcoming obstacles

There were a 1000 reasons why Alex should not have been successful. First he had to convince the scout leaders that he could do this project. He spent six months and over 200 hours in research and planning, just to ask for approval – that is more time and effort than most scouts spend for their entire project. But Alex was PREPARED and when the time came, he was ready and was able to convince the scout leaders that even though this was a huge undertaking, it could be accomplished. After initial approval Alex had to fight continued resistance from some scout leaders at the district and council level. While he did not understand the reason they were fighting him, he did not let their resistance stop him.

Then he had to get approval from the Rotary organization who all enthusiastically supported the project and worked hard to make it possible. After that he had to start the seemingly impossible task of fundraising – which started slow. Every pit beef fundraiser was hit with heavy rain, severe winds or freezing cold, but Alex kept at it. The car show was rained out. He never did the hot chocolate sales because the weather was too hot in October and there were no games in November. Candy sales went fine and were steady though out. Donations seemed to come into the Rotary club from everywhere and 5 clubs and two districts kicked in money combined with the Rotary matching grant, the Rotary organization contributed over $26,000. Alex surpassed his fundraising goal two days before he was to receive the playground. While attending an annual Easter celebration at the Russian Embassy for children adopted form Russia, a family who had two adopted children donated $5,000 which took Alex over his goal of $60,000. Along the way Alex received donations from children who were giving their allowances and birthday money and the entire student body of the Highland School, a school for children with learning disabilities that Alex attended many years ago contributed with a can drive and pennies for the playground.

There were delays in ordering the playground waiting for the matching grant to be processed – the playground got ordered on the last possible day to meet the shipping schedule, causing everyone to panic.

During pre-assembly heavy winds blew daily sometimes lifting the tarp 1 ½ feet off the ground and made the quality check and pre-assembly near impossible. It took forever to work out the shipping logistics and the container was even seized for 3 days by Russian customs, before eventually being released. There were all kinds of problems with installation in Russia – not having the bobcat and auger when we needed it, not having the digging tools, problems with the borders and sand, but we worked through it all. Just as Alex overcame one obstacle another one cropped up, but he worked though them all.

Sometimes it seems like this project was just meant to be, like it was blessed from the good Lord above. You can call it karma or the stars aligned just at the right time, but every time Alex was hitting a wall and needed a break to keep the project moving forward, he got one, just in the nick of time. It was just meant to be. There was too much good to come from all the efforts for anything to stop the success of the Krasnoyarsk Playground Project.

Russia then – Russia now

Fifteen years ago when we traveled to Russia to adopt Alex, it was just two years after the fall of the Soviet Union. Russia was experiencing its worst economic times in modern history. The ruble was basically worthless – I think a dollar was equal to about 4000 rubles at the time. Visiting Russia was like stepping back in time 50 years. The infrastructure – roads, buildings etc were in a state of major deterioration. There were no modern stores or businesses and the stores that were open had nothing on their shelves. Streets would flood with every rain – there were no storm drain system, pollution was horrible and there were no gas stations – tankers pulled over along the side of the road.

Today, Russia is a new country. Everywhere we went, with two exceptions, has seen major improvement. Krasnoyarsk has an entire new district of the city that has been built with tall apartment buildings and modern shopping malls. The downtown area has been greatly improved with walking bridges and fancy tourist attractions along the river. There are new buildings everywhere and hundreds under construction. The roads are still rough, the streets still flood, but there are gas stations everywhere. The same was true for Moscow. The quality of life that Russians experience today is far greater than that of 15 years ago.

This being said, it was sad to see that the two places that had not changes and in fact were in worst condition was Children’s Hospital # 20 and the residential apartment complex where we stayed 15 years ago. Both were in a very run down condition. We even found the playground where the totem pole idea came from and it was all grown over and the totems poles had severely rotten. Just like in America, Russia has areas where life is better and areas where it is not so good. We hope, we know that those areas in both countries, can be improved on. It’s just going to take some people like Alex, who care enough to do something about it.

The Russian people

Fifteen years ago, when they were experiencing the worst of times, the Russian people we came in contact with were incredibly nice, kind and caring. Everyone we met did everything they could to take care of us while we were there. They were good people.

Now that things have changed, it’s nice to know that the people have not. Every single Russian we met  went way out of their way to care for us, to help us, to do anything they could to see to the successful completion of the construction of the playground and to make sure we experienced life as a Russian, not a tourist. Their kind actions and words made this project possible and very enjoyable. We became part of their families and have made friends for life. They worked hard and entertained us well.

The outpouring of love from everyone who visited the playground site was something not expected and touched us deeply. We will never forget them.

The only thorn

It was our hope in the back of our minds, that maybe Alex would be able to find and meet his birth parents. We had their names and addresses from 15 years ago. For over 6 months, people in Russia have been trying to help us find them, and when we arrived, several TV stations and people from the hospital joined the search. We did find out additional information about them, but Alex was not able to meet them. He must have made 200 wishes for the reunion while we were there. Every fountain, everywhere we were told Russian made wishes, Alex made one too. He never said what he was wishing for but we knew. Maybe , just maybe they saw Alex on TV and are proud of their son. Maybe, they saw him and the pain was too much to bear to meet with him. We will never know.

How do you top this achievement?

This question has been asked a lot. The answer is you don’t. This was never about being the biggest or greatest Eagle project. It is not a competition between others, between siblings, between Alex and his future accomplishments. All this ever was, was Alex choosing to do something for his birth home, to build a playground for kids. He never wanted and really does not enjoy all the media attention. This was a once in a lifetime special project unique to Alex. He is fortunate enough to be able to call two countries his home. This was a project in a point and time when the star aligned, everything fell into place to make this project possible. Alex is glad it’s over, he has worked hard and wants to do some kid stuff again, but he will never forget the last 2 ½ years and especially the 2 ½ weeks in Russia.

Alex has left a permanent mark on the earth and on the people of the world. For the next 30 plus years, there will be a safe fun place for children to play that did not exist prior to Alex’s project. With the help of his fundraising efforts, 2 more playgrounds are being built in Krasnoyarsk. More importantly Alex has inspired others to do similar projects. Other adopted children have written him because they now want to do something for their birth homes and playground projects are being planned in the Ukraine as a direct result of people learning what is possible, what can be accomplished. The greatest legacy to Alex’s Krasnoyarsk Playground Project has been the effect it had on the people who participated. What governments and propaganda cannot do, Alex did – join the people of two nations together in peace and friendship that did not exist prior to his Krasnoyarsk Playground Project.

God bless the people of Russia.

God bless the people of America.

God bless you Alex and thank you – the world is a better place today because of you!

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!

Returning to America – rough start/happy ending

Woke up at 5 to keep working on the website. We really wanted to get the 12^th and 13th posted. The site was all a mess with nothing posted previously being shown so we’ll have to try to fix that when we get home. We ate breakfast and still couldn’t print out tickets so went down for our van to pick us up at 9 a.m. to take us to the airport. At 9:15 the van had not arrived yet and for the next half an hour there were many arguments at the Academia Services desk who said they did not have us on the list and refused to pay for a cab. They said we would just have to miss our flight!! By 9:45 for were out of options – we called a 2 cabs and did the Indy 500 race to the airport – our drivers were good and could not have gotten us there any sooner. We had a little trouble finding the United counter but eventually we did only to be at the end of a very long line. We decided to upgrade 1 class to give us leg room but by the time we got through the line we had about less than 30 minutes to clear security and customs before departure time. We arrive at the gate with 5 minutes to spare and boarded. Thank god. The flight took off about ½ hour late – we had to wait for maintenance clearance.

The flight home was great. We were all exhausted and were still on Krasnoyarsk time where we got up at 4 a.m. the day before. The upgrade definitely made for a more comfortable flight. We arrived at Dulles on time, cleared customs with a breeze and were met by our wonderful families. We all missed them much and we are all glad to be home.

Please check back in a few days for another posting – it will take some time to gather our thoughts to reflect back on the last 2 ½ years of work, the amazing last 2 ½ weeks in Russia and what it means to all of us involved. But until then, Alex, Dwight, Christian, Shane, Zach and Dave would like to say thank you to everyone for your support, kindness, thoughts & prayers. We came, we worked, we completed our mission, we played, we laughed, we cried. We love.

Pictures added to August 13th post

We have added pictures to the August 13th post, the day after the grandopening. There are no captions for as the saying goes, a picture speak a 1000 words. The TV cameras and all the hoopula was over. Now it was just a playground for kids to play on and play they did. These pictures are the reason for all the hard work.

August 14th – starting the trip home

We woke up at 4 a.m., got dressed and headed for the airport. We were not able to print out our tickets in advance but it did not turn out to be a problem. Going through baggage and security was easy. It was sad to say goodbye to all our Russian, but all good things come to an end.

The flight to Moscow was fine. Arriving and baggage claim was ok but are Academic Service transportation bus was an hour late. We were trying to call but could not get the phone to work and Dwight kept trying unsuccessfully to get a cab or another bus when suddenly Alex saw a lady standing near us with the Mr. Griffin sign. She appeared out of no-where. It was now 8:30 a.m, Moscow time and 12:30 p.m. Krasnoyarsk time. We took the van to the hotel where we got breakfast and immediately reloaded into the van without checking in to begin our tour. It was also raining today.

We went to the Kremlin and took the Armory tour where we saw lots of really cool historical Russian artifacts like coaches, clothing, armory etc from the 16^th-18^th centuries. Our guide was not good or friendly at all. We were supposed to do a museum tour but we were all exhausted and still had some shopping to do as we all really wanted a cheeseburger. We got dropped off at Arbat street where we rested at the Hard Rock and did the needed shopping.

We returned to the hotel, worked on the website, ate some dinner and tried unsuccessfully to print out our tickets. It is time to come home. We are all ready.

August 13th – The day after and coming back was better than yesterday

This is our last full day in Krasnoyarsk. It began with a lazy morning and at 11 everyone met at the Rotoban amusement park. This is where the downhill bobsled run is that we saw on the Amazing Race TV show. The ride did not open until 12 so we all hung out in the café until then. At 12 we all did the ride twice. You get in a little car with very little protection other than a seat belt. You are pulled to the top of the hill be a cable and then it is a freefall of twisting turns and bumps on the way down with the only thing controlling your spped is a hand break. It was wild and fun and we all did it twice. We than ate lunch back at the café and then went to the zoo. It was a nice lazy walk and we saw some unusual animals but nothing spectacular.

After the zoo we returned to the playground to see goodbye and reflect on our accomplishments. Arriving was quite the scene. All the TV cameras and hoopula was gone – it was just a very crowded space of fun and laughter. There were between 35-50 kids playing along with all their parents. It gave all of us who traveled to Krasnoyarsk a wonderful feeling tp see it being used so heavily. Everyone there was running squee;ing with delight or laughing. We just sttod there and watched all this for a long time, soaking it all in. The boys took their share of turns playing and then Mr. Dave called everyone together for reflections – each of us took a turning describing roses – good things, thorns – bad things and buds – things we were looking forward to. It was very emotional for all of us and we had much to say but watching the children play was at the top of the list  for roses and looking forward to returning one dsy to Krasnoyarsk was a bud. The thorn was not finding Alex’s parents. A lot of people tried and he gpt some more information but he did not get to meet them. The people in Krasnoyarsk who have been helping are going to continue the search and maybe they can find them and send a picture. We sure hope so.

We had also hoped to visit Victor today but he was having a second surgery. Alina left him one of our troop 809 shirts and later that evening he called her to pass along his thanks snd to wish us well. We all then went to our homes to pack and spend the evening with our host families.

The last 12 days have been a whirlwind of activity, hard work and emotions. We could not have done more while we were in Krasnoyarsk. We came to build a little playground for some children which turned into an international event of goodwill and friendship. This simple act touched the lives of people around the world in ways we never could have imagined. We are left with the fondest memories of all the kind Russian people who came out to help or just stopped by to be there, to see or to say thanks. At the same time all of us who traveled here also had the most wonderful personal experiences, truly a trip of a lifetime. When we weren’y working, our kind host were showing us all there was to see and do in Krasnoyarsk – from hiking in the Stolby nature reserve, to guided tours, barbeques, hanging at the dachas and so much more. Our host families took us into their homes, stopped their lives for two weeks to do everything they could to help us. They went far and beyond our wildest expectations. All of this was made possible by Tatiana Khegay and Alina Tvorgova. Tatiana organized everything pulling together all the members of her Krasnoyarsk Rotary Club to provide us with housing, transportation, tools and equipment. Alina did the same rousting up her many friends who in turn provide the labor support we need to achieve our goal. THANK YOU Tatiana and Alina – we will never forget what you have done for us and your kindness and friendship.

The pictures below intentional do not have captions – they speak for themselves.

August 12th – Happy birthday Alex & grand opening

HAPPY 16th BIRTHDAY ALEX!!!!! What a day it was. We woke up to news reports of hard rain all day but it had not started yet, but looked like it could at any time. We arrived to the playground at 9 to begin our CNN interviews – they traveled all the way to Krasnoyarsk to document Alex’s project – WOW! The interviews ran into one problem after another – 1^st a worker was hammering to repair a bench, then a large truck came to plant the two trees, background noise and commotion everywhere. They got Alex’s interview done just before the big opening but didn’t do Dwight’s until 6:30 in the evening – that’s how hectic the day was.

At 11 Alex and Dwight were suddenly whisked away to the maternity hospital were Alex was born. We had never been there before and were shown the room where Alex was born and the incubator where he was for 3 months. It was very moving being there. Next we were given a tour of the Children’s hospital where Alex spent the next 8 months of his life before he was adopted. We met with the nurses and doctors who cared for him, walked the halls and saw the rooms and cribs where he lived. I’m sorry to say that not much has changed in 15 years. I can tell you that two of the finest young man on the planet earth, Christian Posko and Zach Kraft, later this day made a promise that they would return to Krasnoyarsk and build a new Children’s Hospital when they are older!!! Here are two 15 year old future Eagle Scouts making a major commitment to help the children of Krasnoyarsk and we have no doubt they will do it.

Alex and Dwight arrived back at the playground minutes before the grand opening. While they were gone a crowd of 200-300 people had assembled, a balloon arch and balloon animals were set up and the playground was lined with balloons. Music was playing through the sound systems and there were 9 TV stations present and who knows how many other reporters. It was quite the festive atmosphere. Just as the program was about to begin, the sun came out – God has been looking over this project the entire time and he gave us one final blessing.

A professional event planner named Elaine served as master of ceremonies, which began at 12:10 with the ringing of the church bells. A children’s choir sang and then Tatiana Khegay, Past President of the Krasnoyarsk-Yenisei Rotary club gave a very moving speech. There were also speeches by the Deputy Mayor, the head of the Lenin District where the hospital is located and the hospital administrator. A six year old boy sang a song and the Alina’s friends from her capoeira group gave an amazing performance of strength, balance and skill. All the translators who have helped while we were here sang Alex a song. Tatiana and the travel crew finished planting the two trees – one a spruce for Russia and one a chestnut for America. Dwight tried to give his speech in Russian and destroyed it. Then Alex gave part of his speech in Russian and aced it and the 2^nd half in English which was translated for the crowd. This was followed by the crowd singing happy birthday to Alex, cutting of the ribbon and tons of kids rushing the playground while the choir sang the Beetles song yesterday. It was mayhem. The children were screaming and shouting with delight running from one component to another. We ran around taking pictures and trying to record the sounds of the children playing – sounds we will never forget. They did not exist before Alex’s Krasnoyarsk Playground Project. Everyone was flooded with interviews, being pulled here and there.

After 2 ½ years of work, 2705 known hours of labor of which 838 were by Alex alone, thousands of emails and phone calls and a commitment of time, expertise, materials or money from over 600 people in 78 cities, 23 states and 5 countries, Alex’s Krasnoyarsk Playground project is now completed and children are now screaming and laughing as they play on it. Wow!!!!

About 1:30 we ate lunch and then traveled to an orphanage Alex most likely would have gone to had he not been adopted. On the way the promised rains finally came, maybe Gods way of shedding a tear for those children who do not yet have families. This was one of the nicer orphanages in Russia we were told by the CNN crew who have seen many. The children are placed in groups of about 15-18 kids and they all sleep in one room and then there is a second room in which they do everything else – eat, play and learn. We all got to play with the children which was quite fun. While it was nicer than we expected, this is no way for a child to live. This orphanage is for special needs children age birth to 4 years who have a host of medical or psychological issues. In 15 years, 700 children have been adopted from this orphanage and the and the rest are awaiting families. We need to find families for these children so that they do not spend the rest of their lives here.

After visiting the orphanage we all traveled back to Tatiana’s flat. Dwight went outside to do his CNN interview while everyone chilled for a few minutes. At 7, everyone involved with the project went to a celebration dinner and meeting of the Krasnoyarsk-Yenisei Rotary Club. There were many speeches given praising the project and its participants. Rotary banners were exchanged and Dwight presented Tatiana with the wood block from South Africa that is making its way around the world one Rotary Club at a time. Alex was presented with many presents and a birthday cake. Everyone had a great time celebrating what has been accomplished and most of the speeches and conversations were about the goodness of the people of Russia and America, how we can work together for a common goal and achieve much, how all of us on both sides of the ocean have been touched by this simple playground project and how it has changed our perspective of the world. Those of us who traveled here to Russia from America certainly have been changed in ways words can’t describe. God bless America. God bless Russia. God bless the children of the world waiting for a family to call their own and God bless all those who helped to make the Krasnoyarsk Playground Project possible.

August 11th – final touches and waiting for tomorrow

We arrived at the site at 9 and began to clean the playground. We were able to get a hose that made it. Dwight met for a long time to finalize plans for the grand opening with Tatiana, Alina and an event planner who had called to volunteer her services when she heard about the project. Next we hauled off the remaining debris and then cleaned out the shed of all the tools and equipment we brought from America. They will be given to the people who will be maintaining the playground. We put in post for the Rotary sign and a group of about 15 yellow shirted volunteers from the city marched onto the hospital grounds to begin cleaning up the general hospital ground area by weed wacking the tall grass and picking up trash.

Several more people came to speak with us, one wanting to place her 3 month old baby for adoption – we referred her to Cradle of Hope who were so good to us 15 years ago. An elderly man in his 80’s and his wife spoke to Alex and Dwight with tears in his eyes for a long time. At the end he said “you didn’t bring a playground – you brought a miracle”. It is very moving listening to how this project has touched so many people so deeply – it really is quite overwhelming.

After lunch we all went downtown to do some shopping and had some pizza. At home Alex and Dwight worked on our speeches and the website.

There are great plans for tomorrow. It will be a celebration of hard work, tenacity, love for others, peace between nations and compassion for our fellow man. This project has touched the lives of so many people on both sides of the earth and all of us involved cannot wait to hear the sounds of the children playing. Till tomorrow……………………..

August 10th- setting the totems, finishing sand & retracing our steps

Today started off great and finished better, but there were a few glitches along the way. We began by installing the totem poles. We were supposed to have a bobcat, but it did not show so we installed then by hand. We moved them with wheelbarrolls and then tilted them into place. The benches were tough because we had to install one end into the large totem pole and then lift up the smaller ones so the bench could fit into the slots. The allthread went through the angle iron supports with ease and they look GREAT!!! Thank you Randy Boni and Rick Pratt – everyone LOVES you creations.

All that was scheduled was the totem poles and to clean the playground. The city was supposed to send crews with a bobcat to finish the sand and to install the walk and grass. We met last week and officials came out this morning but not crews. The 1^st load of sand arrived around 10:30 without bobcat or crew so we immediately began to install it. About 1:00 a dump truck with a dump truck size trailer arrived. The problem was with the trailer there was no way to get the sand next to the playground as planned. So they dumped the trailer load of sand in the road. When they dumped it we discovered it was the wrong sand so now we had 12 cubic meters of the wrong sand in the road. Luckily we caught it before they dumped the 2^nd load and we used the sand as build up layer below the correct sand. Then a 3^rd load of the correct sand came and was dumped in the proper place, We have now installed 72 cubic meters of sand. As soon as the 3^rd and final load came, 2 more dump trucks of sand arrived. Apparently there was a mix up with the people arranging the sand delivery and orders were placed with a private vendor as well as the city. We sent the 2 extra loads away to another hospital playground site which the Rotary is working on.

About 3:30 when we had about ½ load of sand left to hand move, the bobcat showed up. The city was coming to install the walk which they laid asphalt over a stone base. See pictures of hand held wheelbarroll they were using. It sure would have been nice to have the bobcat when we needed it. They never did install the grass. We were told that an internet company heard about the project and will be planting two trees tomorrow – each to be a native tree of our two countries.

During the day Dwight went to the hardware store to pick up some misc items for the totem poles but had a hard time translating – never was able to get a nail punch or get them to understand what a nail punch is. Russian hardware stores are different from American. In America you have zillions of choices, you select an item and then take it to the cashier to check out. In Russia, the stores are very small and there is one choice for each product. You tell them what you want and then they go in back and get it for you after you pay.

Today both Alex and Dwight visited Victor, the boy who helped us all last week who is recovering from surgery on Friday. We could only go in one at a time with Alina, our translator. It was good to see him and he is doing fine. His mom was in tears about us coming to visit.

I forgot to mention yesterday that while we were visiting the dam, a lady recognized Alex from a TV story and thanked him for what he is doing.

We wrapped up work around 6:30 and Vlad took Alex, Dwight and Dave to a hospital that treats children with tuberculosis. The average minimum stay is over a year and about half the children are orphans. The Krasnoyarsk-Yenisei Rotary club has taken on the challenge to build a playground there. As it turns out because of the overwhelming support of Alex’s Krasnoyarsk Playground project, Alex will have a substantial amount of money left over that is being donated to the Rotary Club so that they can build the playground at the tuberculosis hospital, so now Alex’s efforts have lead to TWO playgrounds – amazing. The second playground is scheduled to be completed in spring 2010. The two loads of sand we didn’t use today were delivered to the hospital and kids were already playing in it. We met with the chief Doctor who thanked Alex for his contribution.

Since we have been here we have wanted to retrace our steps of 15 years ago to find the apartment we lived in while adopting Alex and the playground with all the totem poles. The trouble is, there are probably 500 apartment buildings that were built during the Soviet Union era that look like the ones we were in. Dwight described to Vlad the general area, we knew it was close to the old section of the city because we could walk to it from our flat and that we could see the mountains from our balcony. Unknown to use, Vlad has spent months prior to our arrival on the internet searching down leads of where they might be. After a couple of false starts, and some more detailed info from Dwight we suddenly arrived at the playground with the totem poles. It was in a much deteriorated condition but were still there – quite remarkable. We even found the flat we stayed in. we could see the lumber on the balcony – still there after all this time. Valatine and Vadim, our host from 1994 no longer lived there, but it was great to find. The dirt that the babushkas swept every night was now asphalt and the soccer field/ice hockey rink was a new building but everything else was the same.

What I discovered was that the apartment complex we lived in and Children’s Hospital # 20 have not changed in 15 years, in fact are in much worse condition, while the vast majority of the city has undergone a major transition and improvements, the two places where we were have not. It was like stepping back in time. At 1^st Alex did not want to revisit these areas, but once we found them he was very excited about being there.

We came home and began working on finalizing the plans for the grand opening on Wednesday. It is going to be quite an event. A 6 year old boy who will be singing came for a visit.

Another remarkable day.

August 9th – rebuilding the curb and visiting the dam

We started at 10 since everyone was way out of the city at the dachas. We hand dug about 3’ wide across the front of the playground to expand the play area and moved the concrete borders. It was an easy day.

Many people continued to stop by and watch as well as take pictures of the sign we installed yesterday. One man missing a leg asked for Alex and thanked him for what he is doing. We finished moving the borders around 12:30, ate lunch and just hung out waiting for our rides to take us to the zoo at 2. The zoo was too crowded so we went down to the Yenisei River dam – which was the 3^rd largest in the world when we were here 15 years ago but Tatiana says since then China has built several bigger. The large mural of Lenin has been removed. The kids played skipped rocks at the river’s edge. We stopped at an overlook where Jenny and Dwight took Alex and we took some more pictures, 15 years later. The kids went bike riding and skating at the park downtown while Mr. Dave and Dwight returned home to work on journals and the website.

August 8th – fine tuning and going to the Dacha

We had a short day of work today from 10 to 2. We checked and tightened every fastener on the playground and then drilled and installed rivets to the clamps and poles. We spread the remaining sand although we will need another 2-3 dump truck loads – we already have spread 3. We also measured and cut the allthread for the totem poles which we are going to install on Monday.

Just as we were wrapping up a bunch of members of the Rotary club came by and there was a lot of discussion about the concrete border – 1^st why is it concrete and 2^nd that it was too close to the slides. We had argued these points many times when they insisted on us using the concrete because they can’t get the wood and when the borders were being installed and now following the layout we had done. It was agreed to keep the concrete borders but to move to borders in front of the slides out to where they belonged. We were planning to take Sunday off but now we will be working. To make matters worse, later in the day when we were going out to the country to visit Tatiana’s dacha, we passed no less than 3 lumber yards with the exact wood we needed. Oh well.

We installed the sign which almost immediately people stopped and began taking pictures of it or of themselves next to it. It is written in Russian and it reads:

There are so many occasion where people come up to thank us that there is no way we could report them all or even remember them all but here are a few examples. One of our host family fathers worked today wheelbarrolling sand and when he was done he thanked us for allowing him to do so. He said he hasn’t done anything like that in a long time and he enjoyed it very much. He also said he feelings for Americans have changed and he likes us very much.

There is a man who rings the church bells across the way from the playground and he wants to take off work on Wednesday to ring the bells for the grand opening ceremony.

When we finished our work we out drove about a half hour into the country side to Tatiana’s dacha. Going there was interesting because you’re driving 50-60 miles an hour on a 2 way road with no lines. Driving in Russia is definitely a unique experience. A dacha is a small house or shack where most Russians go every weekend and many weeks during the summer. They are very simple places and all have big gardens. There is no running water at a dacha – although we had a pump to spring water and you use a outhouse with a seat 6” off the floor.

It turned out to be a big picnic with all the host families and some other friends. There were 10 other teenagers in addition to our kids. They were playing soccer, volleyball (without a net) and just hanging out. It was great time.

One thing they do different is they do a lot of grilling but without grills. Americans probably spend a billion dollars a year buying fancy grills. The Russians just place a couple rows of loose brick on the ground, build a wood fire and when the coals burn down they grill. We had fish, pork, beef and lots of fruits and vegetables. It was a really good time.

During the course of the evening there was much discussion about boy scouts. In fact boy scouts is a word that did not exist before our arrival and now a whole city knows what boy scouts are and what we do. And the icing on the cake is that Mr. Dave has convinced Tatiana’s son, Max, to start a Cub Scout pack when his son turns 6 (he is now 3). Add one more item to the list of major accomplishments – getting scouting started half a world apart!!!!

The highlight of the evening was experiencing a Russian Banye – something like a sauna but much different. On the property was a small building maybe 10’x15’. It had a small porch and then a small 6’ wide room with a couch. The rest of it was a sauna but instead of hot stone they had a wood fire that heated it. It would hold 5-6 people and was very, very hot. You also wore really funny looking hats that protected you head from the heat. After the 1^st round we would go in one at a time and one of our Russian friends would come in and beat us with birch branches. Yes, you read right, beat us with birch branches. They were in bundles and still had leaves on them and it was like a massage – it was really great. Then when they were done beating you, you would step out of the sauna and they immediately douse you with a full bucket of ice cold spring water. It was felt great and refreshing.

We all spent the night in the dachas.

New pictures added

Pictures have been added to the August 5-7 post. Check them out!

August 7th – pouring concrete and visiting Nature reserve

Dave and Dwight arrived at the site at 7:30. We were doing final preps for pouring concrete at 9. Also we were told someone would be setting the borders today, so we had to layout the perimeter. Just as we were getting set up the concrete came at 8:00 – 1 hour early. The Russians were insisting on dumping it all on the ground for us to then shovel into a wheelbarroll. We argued for some time and they were insisting on pouring it on the ground. Finally Dwight put the wheelbarroll under the shoot and told the driver to start pouring. By that time others had arrived and everyone lined up and he kept pouring into wheelbarrolls – we made have lost the argument but in the end we got our way. In pouring the 1^st totem pole, one of the volunteers smashed into to rig holding the angle iron in place so Dwight had to re-level it after concrete was in the hole. That was not fun. We completed pouring at 9:00 am.

We found some buckets and rags and cleaned all the concrete off the playground parts.

Next the “border or concrete curb specialist” arrived and began to install the border no where near the perimeter we had laid out. There was some discussion, but we did not win this one – the border went in crooked and angle and not where it was supposed to be. Basically they took 4’ sections of precast 4”x8” concrete – shimmed them level with wood they split with an ax and threw some concrete on both sides. It is not what we wanted but we really didn’t have any say in. We thought we were done for the day when suddenly the Russians started spreading the sand. At the end of day yesterday we had agreed for the sand to be installed on Monday with a bobcat. We switched gears and quickly out the poly down and then everyone jumped in to start installing the sand.

The chief of the hospital and director of the Lenin District came by and we discussed adding a walk to connect the playground to the road, adding grass and benches which they agreed to. The walk and grass will be completed before the grand opening and the benches later. They started the walk today.

As we were putting our tools away Christian did a little exploring in our storage shed which is really an underground bomb shelter tunnel – very dark and damp. As he went to the section behind where we all our stuff had been stored he found all our landscape garden tools – We sure could have used them all week – especially the post hole digger, digging bar and maul.

Victor is having his surgery today. His mom came by with tears in hers eyes to tahnk us for all we did for her boy. These Russians are such good people – imagine her thanking us when it was her son who left his hospital room to do hard physical labor for three straight days and she is thanking us – Wow!!

Another volunteer showed up who had just heard about the project on the TV and one who had been there the last two days came by to thank us and gave Alex his ring, which I am sure is very special to him.

We left the site around 2 to visit the Stolbi Nature Reserve. It was wonderful. We hiking into the mountains and climbed on bunch of different Rock formations that make the king and queen seat look like pebbles. When you got to the top of the formation you could beautiful Siberia mountains everywhere. It was breathtaking. We took the tour with a group of Disabled children advocates with two of their children. The children appeared to have CP or similar illness and they carried them in their arms the whole way and even carried them up the rock formations – all of which were difficult for us. On top of that the man leading us had a leg prostheses yet he was doing all this hiking and climbing. At difficult sections he would just hop on 1 foot. He could not bend the leg at all. They even did a weird ritual at one rock formation where if it is the 1^st time you climbed it that would spank you but with a shoe as many times as the date of the month. We were all glad it was only the 7^th. It was a little weird but we went along with it.

Jenna Miller, the college student from Rochester New York who has been helping Alex in translations arrived today, but her plane came in at 5:40 so she slept most of the day.

It was another great day in Alex’s Siberian homeland.

August 6th – Major playground construction completed!!!

Another amazing day! Everyone arrived at the site a 9. Victor, the boy who is having surgery tomorrow brought us pancakes his mother made to thank us for letting him work. He said helping us took his mind off the surgery. We pretty much finished the playground assembly today. We installed the transfer platform, slides, U bounce, chin up bar, driver panel, wheel, drums, bell and re-leveled what we could although not having a digging bar made it tough and not all the post are perfectly level. We also set the angle irons for the totem poles and the signs. The holes had to be dug another 18” deeper which was really hard since the sono tubes where installed and we didn’t have a post hole digger. The sand was delivered for Monday. It rained hard and we had to stop work for a while – the canopy that was thrown into the container at the last minute sure came in handy. We worked to about 6:30

In the evening Christian, Zach and Shane went to Misha’s flat were all the kids who have been helping celebrated Misha’s 18^th birthday. They all had a great time. Dwight and Dave went to Tatiana’s where several other host families came over for an adult party with lots of food and drink. It was a very good day.

August 6 – We’re Back

Sorry for the communication blackout

First, no news is good news. Everything is going fantastic. The stay in Krasnoyarsk and the amount of work we are accomplishing is far exceeding our high expectations.  I have been trying really hard to keep the website updated but technical difficulties are making it a little bit difficult. My laptop does not work on the internet here so I type everything in and down load pictures and than transfer them to my host computer which has all the commands in Russian. In spite of my best efforts I can’t update the website from here so if you are reading this please send some thanks to Dan Kaplan of Periscopeup.com and Mary Kavanagh of Candidus Marketing for helping me make post.

More about today to follow….

August 5th – Assembly Continues

We have had rain threatening all week and it rained again last night but so far so good. The rain missed us again today. We arrived at the site by nine and pulled the materials from the shed. Dave, Christian and Shane went to work on the crazy bone bridge. Zack started working on a slide and Alex and Dwight began installing stairs. Once we were done one Alex took over and led the Russian contingent in installing all the stairs and railings. The crazy bone was tough and took a long time but we got it done. THANK YOU Jason Lott of Playworld Systems for teaching how to use an alignment pin. About mid morning we really kicked in gear and the Russian crew had really picked up on how to help with the installation so instead of just holding and carrying they began installing. Before we knew it all the climbers were installed along with the seat and graphic panel. Alex made a design change switching the eagle graphic panel to center front with a seat under and moving the angle climber to the side. We were all pretty beat but we got a whole lot of work done.

At 7 we all went to a meeting of the Krasnoyarsk-Yenisei Rotary club where Alex was the featured speaker along with two other youth speakers.

One of the people helping Alex find his birthparents came by and took photos of all the documents from when we adopted him. We will keep our fingers crossed.

August 2nd – Coming Home to Krasnoyarsk

We landed at 5:50 a.m. with just about 1 hours sleep. When we entered the terminal we were greeted by a large contingent of Krasnoyarsk-Yenisei Rotary members and host families. There were some interpreters there to help. We got our luggage and as quickly as we arrived everyone left – each member of the travel crew leaving with a different Rotary Club member host family.

Alex is staying with family with an 18 year old son. Dwight is staying with Tatiana Khegay. Christian is staying with a family with a 20 year old son. Mr. Dave’s host family has 3 children. Shane’s host family has an 18 year old boy and twin 15 year old girls. Zach’s host family has a 17 year old girl.

On the way from the airport I could see Krasnoyarsk has untaken a massive improvement in the last 15 years. There are new buildings everywhere – even an entire new district of the city. It hardly looks the same. I am staying with Tatiana and Alex is on the same floor of our apartment building staying with a family that has an 18 year old son Kirill. Both apartments are very nice two story units on the top floors.

When we arrived at our apartment I sat down with my host Tatiana, her husband Andrey and interpreter Alina. We had some fruit called a green peach from the Kakas tan region – it was very sweet. Alex came over and we spent the rest of the morning reviewed the project plan and schedule. We were told we could not get a bobcat and auger – this is a problem and a huge surprise.

At 12 noon we went to the hospital and all the other crew arrived there as well. There were probably 30-40 people there including newspaper reporters and a TV crew. They interviewed Alex. We discussed our plans and agreed on the sighting and orientation of the playground on the site. The site was supposed to be graded but wasn’t and we still had the issue with the bobcat and auger. We were also supposed to do the playground layout today but our tools were locked in a shed and the person who has the key does not work on Sundays. We talked about multiple possibilities with the grading and hole digging. There is a possibility that the city government might supply a bobcat but we won’t know until mid morning Monday or possibly Tuesday. We also were told that they could not get wood borders and would be using concrete borders instead. After much back and forth, we finally agreed on plan with 2 contingency plans. Plan A is to come to the site at 8 a.m. with the American crew only and begin laying out the playground. At 9 a.m. a 6 member Russian crew will arrive and start to hand carry the playground materials and parts to the site. Plan A assumes we will get the bobcat on Monday we will immediately begin the grading and digging the holes. In plan B if we can’t get a bobcat, we will begin to pre-assembly the various playground components similar to what we have seen on Kaboom projects and start to dig the holes on Tuesday. If we cannot get a bobcat on Tuesday than in plan C we will talk to the TV station that will be airing their report Tuesday night and request volunteers to help us did 42 holes 18” in diameter and 48” deep. Let’s hope we don’t have to go to plan C.

At one point Dwight took Alex aside from all the commotion and walked him over to the hospital. It is in much worse condition now than when he lived here. They stood in the doorway where Jenny walked him out 15 years earlier. Alex got emotional and said it was very glad to be here. It was quite moving.

We left the site around 12 and everyone went to lunch at a restaurant owned by a Rotary member. It was very nice with 4 courses. We made progress on trying to find Shane a Samba (Russian martial arts) gym to work out in. The restaurant owner knows someone who practices this arty and hopefully Shane and I will be able to go at least once.

After the luncheon Alex, Shane and Christian were taken on a walking tour of the center city area for several hours and I came back to Tatiana’s flat to rest. The boys and a great time and even got in a pickup game of soccer with a bunch or area teenagers.

August 4th – Assembly Begins

We went to the site at 9. Dwight began checking hole depths while the boys started putting together a rock wall and Mr. Dave organized all the parts. The hole depths were all over the place – some too high, some a foot too low. I spent most of the morning getting them right only to discover on the next to last hole that the builder’s level we were using was useless. The person who brought the level, Mishna, a very nice man was doing the shooting while I was holding the rod. Mishna got a phone call so I moved to do the sighting only to discover there were no cross hairs in the level – it was like a telescope only – he was just eyeballing the heights.

By 1:30 we had the rock wall and swings set in place and braced off. We then started the platforms measuring the height off the finish grade label as we were instructed. When we finished, the heights of the platforms were wrong because the hole depths were so uneven do to the builder level problem, so we had to re-adjust all the platform heights.

It turned out to be a good day – we got everything accomplished and we are still ahead of schedule. More TV and newspaper crews came, some staying most of the day. I lost count, but at least 8 TV reporters, some from as far as way as St. Petersburg came. Alex is taking it all in stride. One of the workers had seen the story on TV last night and got inspired to come by and help. Building this playground is definitely having a positive impact on the Russian people. There were also the swarm of teenagers and kids, but a little less than yesterday. Two of the nurses that cared for Alex came by and said we would get a tour of the hospital on opening day.

Another really great thing that happened is we are now getting some help trying to track down Alex’s parents. Tatiana has already gone to the addresses we had at the time of adoption but was unsuccessful. We now have 3 different groups working on it. A TV station, the hospital and an internet company have all stepped up and will join the search.

We stopped work at 5 and went home to clean up. We had water but the shower would switch back between ice cold and steam (yes actually steam) about every 30 seconds. At 7, everyone came to Tatiana’s house and we loaded onto a bus for an English speaking guided tour of the historic section of Krasnoyarsk. It was very relaxing and fun.

August 3rd – 1st Day of Work Filled with Surprises

No matter how many words I will write they will never accurately describe the events of the last 24 hours. We arrived at the site at 9. There were probably 50 people there already – everything except a bobcat. The crew started to carry the playground components from the shed while Dwight met with one person after another – various hospital officials, city officials, it seemed there were 200 people who wanted to have a say in how we build this playground. Of course what we needed most was a bobcat and there were none to be found. All throughout the morning the bobcat was coming, then not coming and then coming again. The status changed at least 8 times. We discovered that all our garden tools – shovels, pick, mattox, rakes, digging bars, post hole digger, sledge hammer etc were missing as were some hand tools like tape measures, tool belts, utility knives etc. It seems that someone along the shipping route decided they wanted them more than we needed them but they were wrong. We needed these tools badly but will have to learn to make do. We had asked for marking paint and that was also not there. Eventually someone from the hospital brought us some shovels to work with.

In the midst of all this chaos we switched gears from grading the site and layout and hole digging to assembly of components. We attached the clamps to the platforms, assembled the slides and swings. There were several really cool events during the day. A teenage boy named Victor, a patient in the hospital waiting for surgery to have half his intestine removed saw all the commotion out his window. He came down to see what was going on and when he learned of what we were doing he proceeded to pick a shovel and work the entire day. AMAZING!!!! At another point a 14 year old girl named Masha asked what the playground looked like and Dwight showed her the 3D rendering. When she saw it she jumped and screamed in delight!!! It was great.

While we were waffling back and forth on the bobcat, all the volunteers grabbed the shovels and started to hand grade the site. They actually got it about half down when god blessed us with the arrival of the bobcat around 1:30 p.m. Hip Hip Hurray!!!!! We immediately switched gears again and graded out the site. Next we did the layout and the layout sticks from Playworld Systems really made it easy. About 3:30 an auger arrived and we started digging the holes. The builders level we had shipped must have been banged around a lot and would not hold a level so someone went out and got one so we were delayed again, but we stuck with it and got all the holes dug, covered them with the plywood panels we made back at Kefauver lumber and set up the safety fence. The bobcat operator was not the greatest. We would tell him to go down 2 CM and he would go down 15 CM. We also hit rock and could not dig a few holes as deep as originally planned. We then carried everything back to the storage shed several hundred yards away.

At 3 p.m. Dwight had to stop working to meet with a team of 10 city officials to talk about delivery of the sand. It was a whole lot of “todo” over nothing and after some back and forth, the city agreed to bring some sand with a bobcat and would later put in grass around the perimeter and benches.

Throughout the day there were families, patients, patients’ families, children everywhere. In addition to all the workers there were crowds of onlookers. As fast as we would pull a component out of the box or assemble one the children were climbing all over it, just lying on the ground. They definitely will use this playground.

There were many TV and newspaper reporters at the site today. We lost track but it was at least 4 different TV stations, a magazine and a bunch of newspaper reporters. They were there most of the day. This little idea of building a playground has become big news in Russia.

Alex is making friends with Russians everywhere. He now has a little entourage of kids aged 6-16 who follow him everywhere. It is fun to watch. He has been in charge of giving all the Russian volunteers their instructions. He communicates very well with them.

We wrapped up about 7 – somehow getting everything done plus some in spite of all the setbacks. Tatiana had a barbeque planned for us. Everything on the hospital grounds and in the immediate area is in a very detoriated condition. We walked to the rear of the hospital property, slipped through a fence and then there were these two beautiful single family houses there overlooking the Yenisei River and that is where our barbeque was going to be. Nicholay was our host and he and his wife really out did themselves. All the crew, some Rotary people and our host families were there. We had the most delicious chicken, fish and every kind of fresh fruit and vegetable you could think of. Everyone just chilled all evening and we got a chance to relax and get to know our new Russian friends. Nicolay broke open a stash of very good vodka and there were plenty of shots and toast. Alex ran around the yard chasing chickens and pigeons – he was on cloud nine. It was a great ending to what was a long, hard challenging day.

We came home to no water. Welcome back to Russia.

We landed at 5:50 a.m. with just about 1 hours sleep. When we entered the terminal we were greeted by a large contingent of Krasnoyarsk-Yenisey Rotary members and host families. There were some interpreters there to help. We got our luggage and as quickly as we arrived everyone left – each member of the travel crew leaving with a different Rotary Club member host family.

Alex is staying with a family with an 18 year old son. Dwight is staying with Tatiana Khegay. Christian is staying with a family with a 20 year old son. Mr Dave’s host family has 3 children. Shane’s host family has a 18 year old boy and twin 15 year old girls. Zach ’s host family has a 17 year old girl.

At 12 noon everyone met at Children’s Hospital #20. There were probably 30-40 people there including newspaper reporters and a TV crew. They interviewed Alex. We discussed our plans and agreed on the sighting and orientation of the playground on the site. The site was supposed to be graded but wasn’t and we were told we would not have a bobcat and auger. We were also supposed to inspect the playground parts and do the playground layout today but the shed where the playground and tools are being stored was locked and the person who has the key does not work on Sundays. We talked about multiple possibilities with the grading and hole digging. There is a possibility that the city government might supply a bobcat but we won’t know until mid morning Monday or possibly Tuesday. We also were told that they could not get wood borders and we would be using concrete borders instead. After much back and forth, we finally agreed on plan with 2 contingency plans. Plan A is to come to the site at 8 a.m. with the American crew only and begin laying out the playground. At 9 a.m. a 6 member Russian crew will arrive and start to hand carry the playground materials and parts from the shed about 100 yards away to the site. Plan A assumes we will get the bobcat on Monday we will immediately begin the grading and digging the holes. In plan B if we can’t get a bobcat, we will begin to pre-assemble the various playground components similar to what we have seen on Kaboom projects and start to dig the holes on Tuesday. If we cannot get a bobcat on Tuesday than in plan C we will talk to the TV station that will be airing their report Tuesday night and request volunteers to help us hand dig 42 holes 18” in diameter and 48” deep. Let’s hope we don’t have to go to plan C.

At one point Dwight took Alex aside from all the commotion and walked him over to the hospital. It is in much worse condition now than when he lived here. We stood in the doorway where Jenny walked him out 15 years earlier. He got emotional and said it was very glad to be here. It was quite moving. Dad `started to tear up and we just stood there silently for a moment. Then, it was back to our mission.

We continued discuusing our plans and various options. We left the site around 2 and everyone went to a luncheon at a restaurant owned by a Rotary member. It was very nice with 4 courses. We made progress on trying to find Shane a Sanba (Russian martial arts) gym to work out in. The restaurant owner knows someone who practices this art and hopefully Shane and Mr. Dwight will be able to go at least once.

After the luncheon Alex, Shane and Christian were taken on a walking tour of the center city area for several hours. The boys and a great time and even got in a pickup game of soccer with a bunch or area teenagers. Alex was pumped up from all the activities – he is having a great time and really enjoys being around other Russian kids.

August 1st – Moscow

Today was the day that was the calm before the storm. We have nothing scheduled or planned. After breakfast we walked over to the fancy market we saw the 1^st night, but nothing was open. We managed to find an internet café and print our plane tickets – Mr. Dave & Mr. Dwight were very proud of themselves. We all decided to take an adventure of attempting to take the subway to Arbat Street without any help. With careful observation we were able to get oriented and managed to make to Arbat Street and back flawlessly. We have been told the Moscow subway is the best in the world. It was quite beautiful and ornate and very clean. The trains run every couple of minutes. There is an escalator that is probably 500 yards long and a 60-70 degree angle.

On Arbat Street we just took a leisurely stroll shopping for souvenirs, eating at the Hard Rock café again and the boys continued to notice the young girls. We came back to the hotel and hung out in the lobby for 2 hours until our bus came to take us to the airport.

We arrived at the airport at 6 p.m. for a 9 p.m. flight. Alex was a bundle of energy. We sat down and reviewed our installation plan again and talked about what we might expect in Krasnoyarsk. Going through customs went smooth. We were all standing in a holding area waiting to board the bus that would take us out to the airplane. The doors suddenly closed and locked separating Shane and Dwight from the rest of the group. After an agonizing 10 minute wait, the doors reopened and they boarded the bus and got on the plane OK. While we were waiting to board Alex struck up a conversation with a young man probably in his late teens or early 20’s. It turned out he was adopted from Krasnoyarsk too and had been living in America in Ocean City and was on his way back home. What a small world we live in. Alex REALLY ENJOYS meeting and talking to his fellow Russians. The Flight took off on time and was about 5 hours.

July 31st – Moscow tour

We all slept good last night. We had breakfast and then took a tour of Moscow which turned out to be incredably educational and inspiring to us, and to Alex something much more. He absolutely positively is having a wonderful time experiancing his fellow countryman. He is on cloud nine and is connecting with Russia and Russians in a very positive way. It is sooooo cool to watch.

We have a driver and a english speaking guide. Just like our visit hear 15 years ago when we adopted Alex, our driver was nuts. Unlike our 1st trip, our guide actually spoke english and told us much more about the city and Russian history than we could possibly absorb.

Our 1st stop was Red Square where we visited St Basils, the Lenin Mausoleum (where the old Soviet Union leaders would watch parades on Victory Day- many of you probably saw pictures of this)  and walked through the market area and mall. The architecture here is amazing. Alex held a golden eagle on his arm and the boys continued their girl watching escapades. After Red Square we took a driving tour of many famous places including the White House where in 1991 then Moscow Mayor Boris Yeltsin held off a coup attempt by the old guard of the Soviet Union. Tanks sat on the bridge we were on and his resistance set in motion the fall of the Soviet Union. It gives the adults chills up our spines being at that place in history.

We visited the Novodevicky Convent which had amazing buildings and icons. We went past Gorky Park and visited Sparrow Hill at Moscow University with a beautiful view overlooking Moscow and the site of the 1980 Olympics.

We finished out tour having lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe on Arbat street and returned to the hotel to rest.

After dinner we met to review our playground installation plans and update the website.

July 29-30th DC to Moscow

The trip started with a 1.5 hour delay on the tarmac with no air conditioning. Flight was very smooth, food was good but Alex didn’t sleep at all and was wired beyond belief. The 10 hour flight ended with a very smooth customs clearance and trip to the hotel.

The hotel is very nice as are the female popuation (according to the 4 teenagers). Dinner was excellent and afterwards we took a walk to a really cool market. We learned we have not done a good job learning to speak Russian but we are managing to communicate enough to get by.

We have also learned to use a video phone – too cool!

da-svi-DAN-ye

The playground has arrived!

After two years of preparation and planning and a lot of hard work by many people, the playground and other tools and materials needed for the installation of the playground have arrived safely at Children’s Hospital #20. YEAH!!!!!! The travel crew have our plane tickets and can’t wait to go to Kranoyarsk at the end of July to install the playground.

Childrens’ Hospital #20

L.S. Berzon City Clinical Hospital #20 cares for 435 children in several departments: surgical – 200 children, ophtalmological – 65 children, infectional – 20 children, somatic diseases – 150 children. There are up to 20 abandoned babies in infants pathology which are moved from the maternity house next door.

The doctors and nurses at Children’s Hospital #20 cared for Alex for the 1st 11 months of his life. Alex was born prematurely, weighing less than 2 pounds and was malnourished, had rickets, and was diagnosed with mild celebral palsy.

Alex said ” Krasnoyarsk gave me life and a chance to survive and I would like to give the children of Krasnoyarsk a safe, fun place to play”.

The hospital is in a large residential neighborhood. There is a large flat piece of ground adjacent to the hospital with a small playground on it consiting of a single swing and mud filled sand pit. (See existing playground topic). Alex will be replacing this playground with his new playground that will serve the patients of Children’s Hospital #20, families visiting the patients and the children in the residential neighborhood surrounding the hospital. There are no other playgrounds in this area for the children to play or exercise on.

Our thoughts on adoption

In our opinion placing a child for adoption is the single greatest act of love a parent can give. To love your child so much to suffer the hurt and pain every birth parent experiences and to unselfishly choose adoption as an option for a better life for your own child – well we are just in awe of the strength and courage of  those that have to make this incredibly tough decision.

We have been fortunate enough to have 5 adopted children. Along the way we experienced 12 failed adoptions and raised two foster children for a year. Adoption is our way of building our family.

Families are all different. The ideal family structure is one where the mother and father raise their own children but that is not always possible. Sometimes children are split between two house holds in divorce situations, sometimes they are raised by relatives and sometimes others. Sometimes a child’s biological parents are not able to raise their own children for a variety of reasons and adoption becomes an option. Every child deserves a loving home where they can find love and comfort, where they can learn how to love and how to grow into good, caring, healthy and responsible adults.

In most cases of adoption, the biological parents have had to make the hardest of hard decisions – To allow someone else to raise their child. They made a conscious choice to try to give their child the possibility of a better life then they think they could have given him or her at the time the decision was being made. It is important to understand that the situation that caused an biological parent to make the decision of adoption can change over time. Their lives can and mostly will get better. They can second guess their decision for the rest of their lives.

For years adoptions were closed. Once birth parents placed their child for adoption, the records were sealed. They did not know who was raising their children, where they lived, if they were healthy or not, how they did in school, did they like sports, what they looked like, nothing. They did not know if their children even knew they existed or ever wanted to know who their parents were and why and how they could have given up their children.

Adoptive children likewise can have many questions – why and how could my parents give me up? Did I do something wrong? Do I have any brothers or sisters? What would my life be like if I were not adopted to name a few.

In our opinion this is not good for the adoptive children or their parents. The not knowing can haunt you forever.

We are very glad and proud that all of our adoptions are very open. We were at the hospital when 4 of our adopted children were born and heard their first cries. Our children know everything we know about their biological families and to varying degrees have contact with them. Our oldest child’s biological parents stayed together and got married. We were in the wedding party. They have since had two other children and we see them regularly. My daughter has grown up knowing and spending time with her parents, her grandparents and sisters and in our opinion it is the  best case scenario. My middle son’s mom used to visit each weekend when she lived in the state. Now she lives far away but we speak on the phone  a lot. I remember when my son was five and he proclaimed one day they he wanted to speak with his mom. We said ok, picked up the phone and called her. He also has siblings and now they are calling him to let him know what is up. Our twins have had limited contact withtheir birthparents at their birth parents choice. When they are ready, we will be here with open arms.

Four of our children’s biological parents chose us to raise their children and we will be forever grateful to them for that. We will do our best to do right by them and for their child. It is our hope that we will be successful in the minds of the mothers and fathers that chose us to parent their children to adulthood.

Alex has a different situation. He was born 2 years after the fall of the Soviet Union at a time of great despair. There was great economic and social turmoil. Alex was left at the hospital where he was born because his parents did not have the means to care for him. We have their names and that is it. We are hoping for the possibility of Alex connecting withhis birth family when we travel to Krasnoyarsk this summer to install the playground. That would be such a wonderful gift for him. He will be celebrating his 16thbirthday in his birth home having the grand opening of a the playground he worked on for 2 1/2 years, he designed, he raised the money for and he built with his own hands. What greater birthday gift could he receive then to be reunited withhis birth family. I would want them to see that he has not forgotten them or his country.

It is also our hope that his project in some way can help to dispel some of the rumors and misconceptions about international adoption, especially as it relates to Americans adopting. We are not stealing babies and selling their body parts. We are not abusing them or forcing them into labor. We are raising them the best we can in some ways probably cherish them more than if we had given birth to them do to all we had to go through to bring them into our family. We make sure they know about their families, their countries and their culture by talking about it and making it part of their lives. We do not want them to forget – no one should ever forget where they come from because that is part of who we are.

We also hope that Alex’s project will in some way inspire other adopted children to return to their place of birth and do something to help their brothers, sisters and countryman in a way that might not have been possible had it not been for them being adopted.

Finally it is our hope that because of Alex’s project all the people involved throughout the world will feel a connection to each other as described in the wonderful words or Russian adoption coordinator Cara Sadouskaza who said;

“Years will pass. Children, that by the will of fate were orphans in Russia, and ended up adopted and the citizens of the United States, will grow up. Of course the United States will be their motherland, but maybe their parents and relatives, they themselves and their friends will feel some thing that connects them with Russia. Maybe their children’s arm’s, stretched from one country to the other, through all the borders, above the heads of politicians, in spite of the tales and bad will of some people, will be able to tie our people with mutual fate, love and care better and stronger then any official international agreement.”

God bless the children of their world, the parents and families who gave the greatest gift of love to their children by placing them for adoption and to those of us challenged to do our best to raise them to be good, responsible adults.

Dwight and Jenny Griffith

Please visit the links to these adoption organizations who have been so helpful and supportive of our family and Alex’s project:

• Cradle of Hope Adoption Center
• Families for Russian and Ukranian Adoptions
• Spence-Chapin
• Joint Council for International Children’s Services.

Project Treasurer

Kevin Mackey served as the project treasurer and with the help of Deniise Parker tracked all the income and expenses of the project.

Installation Instruction & Procedure Crew

This crew was responsible for documenting the installation process. The crew visited many Playworld System’s playgrounds throughout the region to view and take pictures of the completed assembly of the components that are going to be installed in Russia. Next the crew visited the Playworld Systems factory in Pennsylvania where they learned about the manufacturing processes, met with a graphic designer and designed the bear and eagle custom graphic panels (they look real good) and met with Jason Lott who gave them installation instructions. Finally the crew wrote a installation instruction & procedure manual outlining a step by step process complete with pictures to guide the installation process.

Quality Check & Pre-assembly Crew

This crew consisted of 6 main leaders – all of whom will be traveling to Russia to install the playground. Each leader of this crew had responsibilities to inspect and perform a test preassemble of the components that they will be responsible for installing in Russia. The crew worked over a 3 day period in April at Kefauver Lumber where they checked in all the playground parts and then practiced installing them. Jason Lott of Playworld Systems spent an entire day helping the crew learn tricks and techniques that will help the uinstallation process. The process was very helpful and helping us understand the installtion process.

Purchasing

Christian Posko led the purchasing crew that was responsible for shopping for the tools and materials that were being purchased in the US and then shipped to Russia.

Shipping & Crating Crew

Spensor Herculson led the shipping and crating crew that included mostly older scouts and adults who can handle power tools. Four eagle scouts participated on this crew that built the crates to protect the totem poles, the signs and tools. A separate crew including 3 members of the Towsontowne RotarAct Club worked at the completion of the pre-assembly process to re-package the playground for shipment to Russia and to load the playground, tools and materials into the container for shipment to Russia.

Special thanks go to the following individuals and businesses who provided services to make the shipment of the playground to Russia possible:

David Rice of Dartrans Inc for cooridinating the shipment of the playground from the Port of Baltimore to Krasnoyarsk.

Kefauver Lumber for use of the property and forklift to unload and then reload the playground.

Rukkert Terminal Corporation for allowing me to hold a press conferance on site and to allow me to watch the container be loaded on the boat. That was a really great day!!!!

Hale Transportation for providing the trucking of the playground from the Jarrettsville to the Port of Baltimore.

Western Fumigation for treating the totem poles and other wood products that was required for import into Russia.

Safety & security Crew

Christian Posko served as crew leader and I am happy to report that Christian had to care for only two minor cuts that occurred during the 7 day quality check and pre-assembly process. Christian will also assume these same responsibilities in Krasnoyarsk.

Photography Crew

A total of  13 scouts participated on the photography crew taking excellent images throughout the project, many of which have been posted on this website. All of the scouts earned requirements for photography merit badge with many having completed the merit badge.

Car Show

On October 4, 2008, Friends of Troop 809 Inc, held the 1st annual Jarrettsville Car & Truck Show with 100% of the proceeds going to benefit the Krasnoyarsk Playground Project. The show, held at William Watters church in Jarrettsville, MD was orginally scheduled for September 27th but was rained out and had to be rescheduled. A total of 77 cars and trucks participated along with over 40 volunteers helped to make the show a hugh success!!!

Marketing & Publicity Crew

Fellow scouts Christian Posko, Chad Short and Ryan Reese created press releases that were sent to area media resulting in fantastic press coverage. See press page for copies of all the articles that have been published.

Ryan Reese worked with Angela Howard to create the project website.

Alex manned booths at four area Rotary club meetings, adoption events and business group events to promote the project to everyone he could. He was even invited to the Harford County Council to discuss his project.

Contact Alex

Alex would like to help other adopted children who want to do something for their birth homes or families. You may contact Alex at alex_eagle@hughes.net to learn more about this project or to find out how Alex can help you with your project.

Pit beef fundraisers

There were five separate pit beef fundraisers held at Kefauver Lmber and William watters church in Jarrettsville, MD. Mr Darrell Bennett and Jeff Maenner served as head cooks supported by many scouts and friends. Most of the fundraisers were met with either driving rain, freezing cold or gail force winds. 650 pounds of beef, 90 pounds of ham and 50 pounds of turkey were sold!!

Candy Fundraisers

Alex’s candy crew sold over 4,200 bars of Hershey chocalate candy bars at local businesses raising over $,4000. Thank you to everyone who helped sell the candy.

Eagle Scout Project

As part of his Eagle project, Alex will be leading other scouts and members of the community.

He will be designing and purchasing the new playground, coordinating fundraising, creating a installation instruction and procedure manual written in both English and Russian, performing a quality check and preassembling of the playground, and then crating and shipping the playground to Russia.

Learn more about Eagle Scout Projects.

Totem Poles

All the pictures of playgrounds in Russia Alex has seen have wood carvings of Russian folklore or animals and Alex wanted to do the same for his playground.

Picture of Russian playground Wood Carvings

On September 17/18 2008, world renowned wood carvers and artists Randy Boni of Tennessee and Rick Pratt of New York converged on the parking lot of Kefauver Lumber in Jarrettsville Maryland to create the totem poles that will be shipped to Russia and used as the entrance to the new playground at Children’s Hospital #20.

The eagle, representing America, is keeping a protective eye over the children. The bear, representing Russia, is keeping a watchful eye over her baby cub.

The totem poles were made from a 20 foot Alaskian cedar log shipped in especially for the project from Canada.

Bear begins to take shape

Rick Pratt begins to add details to the bear

The Bear totem pole entry bench

It's going to be an eagle!

Randi Boni adds feathers to the eagle

The Eagle totem pole entry bench

The Rotary Connection

Rotary International

Yenesei-Krasnoyarsk Rotary led by Tatianna Khegay, President is the club initiating the project. They have been my eyes on the ground and are communicating on my behalf with the Chief of Hospital #20. They will receive and store the playground prior to our arrival in Krasnoyarsk, provide lodging, help secure materials in Russia, serve as crew leaders and help build the playground. They helped with fundraising. The Krasnoyarsk Rotary Club made an official request to Rotary International for a matching grant.

Krasnoyarsk Rotaract the Russian youth group arm of Rotary led by Alina Tvorogova will help in communications, provide lodging, serve as crew leaders and help build the playground.

Rotary International and Orphanact led by Steve Moksnes, Chuck Gray and Lida Sclocchini will help coordinate and guide the participating Rotary clubs, helped with the paper work and provide a matching grant to make the project possible.

Bel Air Rotary Club led by Mark Welsh, Scott Keck and Jay Van Duesen is serving as the U.S. sponsoring club, helped with the paperwork, helped with the fundraising and matching grant.

Towsontowne Rotary Club led by Neil Young, who serves as past District 7620 World Service Chair, has been instrumental in guiding the project, helping with paperwork, and coordinating local club activities and the matchng grant.

Towsontowne Rotaract Club led by Kim Gervasini and Beth Estabrook has co-sponsored the project and is helped to sell candy and helped with the pre-assemebly and shipping and crating.

Aberdeen Rotary Club led by David Lynch and Don Curry has co-sponsored the project, helped to sell candy and fund-raise.

Seattle 4 Rotary club also co-sponsored the project and helped with fundraising.

This project meets and exceeds the Rotary 4 way test:

1. It IS the TRUTH
2. It IS FAIR to all concerned
3. It WILL build GOODWILL and better FRIENDSHIP
4. It WILL BENEFIT all concerned

This project would not be possible without the tireless efforts of Rotary memberes from around around the world. Thank you to all my new Rotary friends who have been so helpful.

The Proposed Playground

With the help of the Playworld Systems playground company, Alex designed a new playground to be used by patients of Hospital #20, their families, and neighborhood children.

The playground is designed for children ages 5-12, is ADA accessible, and has 20 components, including a double bay belt swing, a curved rock wall, crazy bone bridge, and multiple climbers and slides.

The playground will be red, white and blue – the colors of both the Russian and American flags.

The Proposed Playground. Click the image to enlarge

The Existing Playground

The existing playground at Hospital #20 has one small swing, a sand pit but it is filled with mud and a small gazebo with picnic table The playground is unsafe. The hospital definitely needs a better playground.

The existing playground, which we will replace

Another Shot of the Existing Playground

A History of Krasnoyarsk

Forest Hill and Krasnoyarsk

At the time my parents adopted me, just 2 years after the fall of the Soviet Union, Krasnoyarsk had fallen on very hard times, with buildings, roads and sewers being in very bad shape.

A view from apartment Alex's parents stayed in while in Krasnoyarsk to adopt Alex

Adoption Office