Horse Creek Academy is a top 10 finalist for a grant to build a new playground, and "swing" votes from the community could keep the charter school in the top five to win one of the $20,000 prizes.
To enter the contest, school representatives submitted a two-minute video to the 2015 Let's Play Video Contest. The five schools and organizations that receive the most votes from the public on the Let's Play Facebook page each will receive a $20,000 grant to build a new playground.
To watch the video and vote, go to www.facebook.com/letsplay. Click on the link "2015 Lets Play Video Contest" to find the video and vote.
The contest allows one vote each day, and the deadline to vote is 12:59 p.m. Friday. As of Monday morning, Horse Creek held second place in voting.
"I have parents who are all the time perusing for grants, and although we have some limited playground equipment, a playground is one of the things we were not able to fund with our facility," said Patti Strom, executive director of Horse Creek.
Adriene Patterson, a parent of a student at Horse Creek, found the grant and got a friend who is a videographer to shoot the video with students as the stars on a Saturday morning. Patterson and Strom wrote the grant.
In the video, a young artistic angel who has never seen a playground asks children to describe one so she can paint a picture. Their responses - a rocket ship, an airplane, a worm hole to the other side of the universe - give the angel the inspiration to complete the work, and the angel begins to understand that "a playground is a canvas for the imagination."
"The video is amazing," Strom said. "The kids had so much fun doing it."
Strom said a playground is more than a place where children can run and swing and play. On the playground, children learn to solve problems through social interaction.
"Everything we do - I think just about everybody's job - is based on collaboration and working together and solving problems," Strom said. "You have no idea the things that get solved on a playground before they ever get brought to a teacher. It's a place for children to learn. The social aspect is so important, and it's often overlooked."
With the grant and money that parents have raised, Horse Creek would be able to move the current playground to the front of the building and add a fence before the beginning of the school year.
"I want the children to have a really, really safe area," Strom said.
Horse Creek Academy previously operated as Midland Valley Prep near Aiken Technical College for 12 years. With the help of a bond issue, the renamed school opened in August 2014 at a new location on Toolebeck Road in Aiken.
The contest is a partnership between Let's Play, which provides places for children and families to make play a daily priority, and Kaboom!, a national, nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing balanced and active play into the daily lives of all children.
A native of Aiken, Larry Wood is a general assignment reporter. The monkey bars were his favorite on the "big playground" at Eustis Park Elementary.