Waukesha men return year after year to build playgrounds for kids

Children in Waukesha are about to have a brand new place to play thanks to some community volunteers. Every year, the Waukesha Parks,  Recreation, and Forestry Department builds playgrounds around the city with people who volunteer their time. Right now, they are building a playground in Bethesda Park.

“We have wonderful people from the community. We are very excited to have everybody help out. Grandparents come to help build a playground for their grandchildren, people from our neighborhood come out, individuals come out,” said April Dethloff, a volunteer coordinator for the city.

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She says oftentimes people don’t stop coming out. Ron Streit has been volunteering for years.

"This is my eighth playground build,” said Ron. "I love it. I love it."

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That is what TMJ4 reporter Rebecca Klopf heard over and over as we spent the day watching a new playground go up. Ron didn’t come alone to volunteer this time. He also brought along his brother-in-law Jim Dunning. Jim said he couldn’t say no to this project.

Watch: Waukesha men return year after year to build playgrounds for kids

Why Waukesha men return year after year to build playgrounds for kids

“Every day is a Saturday for me. I'm retired,” said Jim.

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Ryan Hutchison is on his fifth playground build. He says he started volunteering when they were going to put a playground near his home.

"I wanted to help build the park my kids play on,” said Ryan.

That similar motivation is also why Matthew Gross came out

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"I wanted to tell my kids I helped build a park,” said Matthew.

The city has been building playgrounds through volunteers for 20 years. They need about 60 volunteers over two days. And since they started they have never been without enough people, like Ron, who just keep showing up.

“It is great to see the kids enjoying it and it is great to say that you had a part in it,” said Ron.

The volunteers wrapped up their part on Friday. The city will come out to officially finish the playground in the next few weeks and it should open by the end of the month.

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