TURNER – A group of moms hope to buy a $60,000 playground to replace the splintered structure outside Turner Elementary School that was dismantled and hauled away before classes began.

And the moms, who make up the five-member Turner Community Playground Committee, are halfway to their goal.

“It’s important for recess,” said Tina Daigle, who has two children in the school. “But it’s important for the community, too.”

It’s a place to bring kids and grandchildren from all over town, she said.

“The community is really behind us,” she said. Fundraisers such as spaghetti suppers have sold out. And other events – craft fairs, movie nights, catalog sales and even a cow flap drop – have all made money.

Everyone in town knew the old playground, a big wooden maze of slides, climbing poles and hidey holes, Daigle said.

“When they tore it down, children cried,” she said.

The playground lived its life, Principal Kay Slusser said.

It had sat in front of the school for 17 years, well past the lifespan of most wooden playgrounds. When the state inspector told her in August that it would need to be closed, it was not a surprise.

The fundraising to replace it had already been under way for two years.

“It was old, aging and on its last legs,” Slusser said.

And even the kids who loved it were growing uneasy by some of its worn edges. Daigle’s oldest kids, Joshua, 11, and Angela, 9, both got splinters when they played there.

Since the playground was hauled away, recess has been different. Without the equipment, teachers have been leading the kids in old fashioned games such as four square, red rover and kickball.

With some of the games, such as hopscotch, teachers have had to show children how to play them.

Slusser hopes to have a new playground in the same spot as the old one by next spring or summer.

Several fundraisers are coming up: a craft fair and cow flap drop on Nov. 12, and holiday wreaths may be ordered until Nov. 17.

Daigle and Slusser know the total cost is frightening but any good playground needs big numbers.

“A new slide can cost $10,000,” Slusser said.

Part of that is also based on materials.

“They’re not wooden anymore,” Daigle said. “They’re metal. They’re plastic.”

Joshua Daigle worries less about money. He just hopes he doesn’t grow up before the new equipment arrives.

“I want to play on it before I go to middle school,” he said.