The Manteca Sunrise Kiwanis Club  members rolled up their sleeves Friday to build a play area for the Raymus House women’s and children’s shelter in the 500 block of South Union Road. It  will have swings, slides and other challenges for shelter  youngsters.

Several of the workers who were laying the concrete foundation are members of the Manteca Police Department.  Traffic officer and Kiwanian Patrick Danipour was coordinating the effort that saw some three yards of concrete poured in the forms of the 30X32 foot square section at the rear of the property.

Club President Kitty Walker was among those bringing in three trailers of wet concrete to be shoveled into wheelbarrows and hand trucked to the wooden forms throughout the morning.  Walker was the only woman on site who did her share of digging the foundation trenches.

Danipour hand cranked the trailer beds to an angle that would allow the Shuppard team to shovel the wet material into one of several wheelbarrows as the group attempted to beat the natural drying process in the foundation construction.

In the early afternoon the Kiwanis members brought in a load of bark that is being used to provide a safe ground cover for children who will be playing on the equipment after it is installed next Saturday, April 20. 

The cost of the play equipment is $2,800 and was purchased from Costco.  The concrete and the bark amounted to $600 – half price from Ed’s Rockery because it was to be used for the women’s and children’s center, according to a Kiwanis spokesman.

In addition to Kiwanis President Kitty Walker and coordinator Patrick Danipour, the other Kiwanis members on the work team included Arvin and Joe Reed, Larry Mallow, Charlie Goeken and Ethan Ides.