Well they always say Playcentre people are creative. This really is a story of thinking outside the box. 1st July 2012 was a significant day in Takarunga Playcentre history….the day the “blue box” came back. After five years of being out of Playcentre, one bright spark, mum Sonia, suggested a great way of getting it back in use.

The blue box is part of the Tredsafe set of four boxes of varying sizes and colours (blue, red, green and yellow) but safety regulations changed shortly after it was purchased stating that anything over a metre in height needs to be surrounded by fallzone of 1.5m of safety matting or bark on all sides….we have some matting but not that area and not flat enough.

Sonia said “why don’t we put a roof on it?”. Isla, Tara and Erin, whose house had the pleasure of storing the box for the past few years, gave it a good wash down. Andrew, Raul and Tor balanced it on a skateboard and pushed it across the zebra crossing and back up the steep slopes of Mount Victoria. A few hours of carpentry and “ta da”; a removable roof. With new gym mats funded by Devonport Rotary underneath our tamariki are now enjoying the monkey bars again.