Early Childhood Center Dedicates New Playground to Director

“Miss Janet’s Playground” introduces a whole new world of outdoor fun for our ECC students.

This past Friday, families gathered between thunderstorms to introduce a transformed ECC playground dedicated to beloved ECC Director Janet Giovinazzo H'01, P'12, P'15. The play space that many boys remember from their elementary school days at CHA has been replaced with two large play structures and a series of features built with elements from nature that are appropriate for our youngest students—a natural sandbox, a “rock river” with a bridge, a series of stepping logs, and a big hill and tunnel. Just this week a slide was added to provide a fun and fast transport for ECC students to slip from the back patio to the grass. A beautiful sign designed by Pia Druggan which reads “Miss Janet’s Playground” will now hang on the fencing surrounding the playground (along W. Springfield Avenue).

Many thanks to ECC dad and architect Thomas R. Nickel who volunteered to design a small playhouse from the packing crates of the playground equipment. He then helped to build this along with some of the ECC teachers who also added flower boxes and planters to the structure. SCH CFO Frank Aloise, who was involved with the project from the onset, shared, “Once again this proving that the box the toy comes in can be as much fun as the toy itself!

Many thanks to the McCausland Foundation as well as the many other donors who made this fabulous new outdoor space possible. The children of ECC LOVE it!

SCH, always mindful of an opportunity to repurpose and reuse, was pleased to be able to donate the Jordan building playground equipment to the Community Partnership School in North Central Philadelphia, thus enabling a whole new group of elementary school students to enjoy it.