The playground at Brusly Elementary School in Brusly will get a major overhaul by the LSU Community Playground Project, and the University students’ design could be the winner of a $10,000 grant.The new Brusly playground, designed by the Community Playground Project, is a national finalist for a grant from KaBOOM, a non-profit organization dedicated to building playgrounds.The Community Playground Project was founded in 1998 by Marybeth Lima, biological engineering professor, who wanted to develop a project for a freshman-level biological engineering course with a real-world component. Lima chose playgrounds and partnered with a local public school to design and build one. The idea took off, and Lima was inundated with requests for partnerships, she said. More than 10 years later, the project is busier than ever.”We partner with public schools in the Baton Rouge area and work with kids at the school to get them to develop their dream playground ideas,” Lima said. “My students take those ideas and translate them to an actual technical design.”The student designers are all biological engineering majors, and they keep biology in mind during the design process.”Kids are little biological beings, so you think about how you design an environment to meet their basic biological needs,” Lima said.The students approach the design from a biological viewpoint, said Nicole Walker, biological engineering senior and lead designer for the Brusly project.”We’re thinking about how to get the kids to think and be able to use their physical attributes to the best of their abilities,” Walker said. Brusly Elementary assistant principle Sheila Goins said she heard about Lima’s work and thought a partnership would be perfect for Brusly as the school’s population was growing and the playground became inefficient.But Brusly lacked funding, so Goins knew she would have to work hard for the new playground, she said.She teamed up with faculty members and parents of her students on a number of fundraisers, including teachers staffing a Burger King for a day and raffling off New Orleans Saints memorabilia, which includes tickets to an upcoming game and autographed merchandise, donated by New Orleans Saints cornerback Randall “Blue” Gay, former LSU football player and father of a Brusly student.So far, Brusly has raised about $15,000, Goins said. The additional $10,000 from KaBOOM would allow the school to build its dream playground.Because the funding is still uncertain, Lima and her students have created several different designs for various funding levels, she said.Once the funding is secured, members of the Community Playground Project, and the Brusly community will volunteer to assemble the playground under professional supervision, Lima said.Walker said constructing the playground with volunteers makes a big financial difference.”We can knock off about $10,000 from the cost with volunteers,” she said.Brusly is one of five finalists for the KaBOOM grant. The winners of the award will be determined by Internet vote. The two finalists with the most votes will each receive $10,000.Anyone can vote for the Brusly playground once per day at kaboom.org/playday. Voting closes Dec. 1.—————Contact Ryan Buxton at [email protected]