A Puyallup Elementary School is celebrating a huge victory. They just learned they won $50,000 in a national competition from Pepsi to build a new playground.
The playground at Brouillet Elementary is on its last legs.
"When we started this year, this slide was collapsed. It was totally cracked," said Brian Ragsdale, parent at Brouillet.
Now 20 years old, the playground has been shut down twice this year because of repairs. But soon, the children at this school and in this community will have a new and safer place to play thanks to a $50,000 grant from the Pepsi Refresh Project.
Ragsdale entered a national contest, where the public had the chance to vote on their favorite community project. Brouillet was up against some major organizations, but came out on top.
"We're thrilled. It's almost like we're living a dream where we have to pinch ourselves," said Ragsdale. "We care about our kids like a lot of communities do, but we went out and did something about it. When we reached out to (the community) and asked for votes, we got those votes."
The school spent the last 18 months raising money to replace the playground and raised $25,000. But they were still short $50,000.
"Our thing was we wanted to get a playground which would be sufficient for pre-k kids, 5-12 and special needs children," said Ragsdale.
The new playground, which will be built on an empty field next to the baseball field, will have specially designed areas for different age groups. It is expected to open at the beginning of the next school year.
Pepsi cut back on marketing this year and instead, used the money to award more than $20 million as a way to empower people to come up with ideas to make this world a better place to live.
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