It’s a playground that’s being raised in the Keating Valley, but the effort exerted is similar to that of an old-fashioned barn raising.

“This is a cowboy construction zone,” said Wade Simpson, a Keating grandpa and rancher who also has worked in fabrication.

Simpson alternated between reading instructions, looking for the right part at the right time, and joining the crew that assembled a large wooden play structure that will be a centerpiece of the refurbished playground.

“We were at Step 5 after an hour and a half, and there are 80 steps,” said Keating principal Skye Flanagan.

Simpson was joined in the volunteer effort by Sam Baxter, who works for him, and Wayne Whitley, who has two sons at the school. Whitley’s sons also joined him on the work project Monday.

Mandy Wirth and her 5-year-old daughter, Bailee, were among those who remained in the afternoon to continue the assembly work.

“We take labor of any kind at this school,” said teacher Toni Myers as Bailee and her 5-year-old friend, Levi Whitely, worked to help assemble a piece of equipment.

About 15 friends, family members and school employees gathered at the school at 7 a.m. Monday to begin rolling out the new playground toys and preparing them for assembly.

The new playground toys are valued at around $8,000. The remodeling of the old playground was paid for by fundraising efforts of the Parent-Teacher-Community Organization that supports the school.

The Baker School District will foot the bill for providing the fabric barrier and wood chips to cover the playground area, Flanagan said.

Before construction began, Chuck Lowry, whose now grown children attended school at Keating, brought equipment to the site to level it and prepare it for the Monday assembly project.

“He’s in the middle of haying, and he just drops it and comes down to help us,” said Myers, who teaches preschool through second grade.

Amanda Wilde, who was named head teacher for the coming year and will teach Grades 3-6, and her daughter, 12-year-old Katie, joined Myers, Flanagan and Debbie Radle, who works as a parapro and part-time maintenance and transportation worker at the school, to lead Monday’s effort.

“Toni and Mandy spearheaded this, for sure,” Flanagan said.

Keating Elementary serves about 20 students in preschool through sixth grade, most of whom live on the farms and ranches that surround the school.

The early crew spent the morning unloading the various pieces needed to assemble the large play structure complete with swings and a slide. Separate pieces included more swings and bars to climb on and hang from and an airplane-shaped teeter-totter set.

Another play structure will be assembled by some of the older students when school resumes. They will use their science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) skills, Flanagan said.

See more in the Aug. 3, 2016, issue of the Baker City Herald.