The safer, more accessible and durable Compo Beach playground after a week-long community reconstruction effort wound up Saturday.

Here’s a photo diary by Laura Alvarez chronicling Saturday’s activities.

Photo at left: Ben and Johanna Kiev were among the Saturday volunteers at the beach. Right: Maya Cloherty helped out by testing a newly installed swing.

WESTPORT — Skies were gray and drizzling, but the atmosphere couldn’t have been sunnier for a crowd at Compo Beach on Saturday.

The group gathered to put finishing touches on the rebuilt playground at the beach, a week-long community project carried out by scores of volunteer laborers transforming the facilities into a safer, more accessible and durable playscape.

Crew of volunteer laborers at the playground construction site Saturday.
Photo at left: Ziba, 7, and Rumi, 4, pitched in by helping to paint tiles that will be displayed at the playground. Right: Cooper Sterling, 5, and Piper Sterling, 2, played at the volunteers’ “Kids Club” while their mother, Samantha Owades, oversaw the area.

Planning for the project spanned more than a year, and despite the day’s unpleasant weather, the crew’s smiles were radiant.

Besides the many hours of donated labor, the project was made possible by a wave of community contributions that ranged from design ideas to financial support to a child’s jaunty logo to restaurant food for the cadre of volunteers.

Small touches remain before the remodeled playground is complete, with the official re-opening planned by Memorial Day.

Setting up a tent to shelter children from the rain were “SLOB” members Haroon Baig, Rian Connolly and Ezra Schwartz, with Moss Baig, father of Haroon.
Photo at left: Phil Kann and Rick Benson, advisor and treasurer for the Westport Rotary Club’s playground initiative, hammered things home Saturday. The club contributed $100,000 for the project. Right: Kim Cooper, left, with her daughter Samantha Owades, a leader of the Compo Playground Organizing Committee, holding her daughter Piper. Cooper traveled from Sarasota, Fla., to help with her third playground project at the beach.
The Greenstein family, Seth, Annie and Olivia, 14, helped out Saturday, saying they believe the playground is an important community space for children.
Photo at left: Stephen Hittman, left, and Mark Owades staffed the tool shed and gave construction advice to volunteers. Right: Chloe Zale and Chelsea Elkind, co-chairs of the food committee, dished out food donated Saturday by Romanacci at Old Mill Grocery and Deli. During the week-long rebuild, 25 vendors donated about $40,000 worth of food, they said.
Emma, 8, and Morgan, 11, Zampiello at the “Kids Club” while adults worked on the rebuilding project.
Alex Cohen, one of the Westport Rotary Club volunteers, crafts a sign for the renovated playground.

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