Ashland Elementary School updated their 20-year-old playground with the help from the School’s PTA, neighborhood Association, fundraisers and KaBOOM! KaBOOM is a national non-profit dedicated to bringing balanced and active play into the daily lives of all kids. Ashland Elementary was the recipient of “Build it with KaBOOM,” a grant bringing the school additional funding for playground improvements. KaBOOM requires that grant recipients test the playground area for lead and arsenic - two heavy metals that present health hazards, especially for children.
Shield was contacted by Ashland Elementary to assist with the sample collection and reporting for the proposed playground area. Once the samples were collected from the area, they were tested and analyzed for the requested heavy metals. Shield provided consulting services to assist Ashland Elementary and the grant provider with interpretation of the results in relation to EPA Regional Screening Levels (RSLs) and normal background levels with Kentucky.
Project
Ashland Elementary School
Lexington, KY
May 2017
Services
Environmental Sampling
Consulting Services
KY EXCEL Voluntary Project
Value Added
Shield quickly developed a sampling plan compliant with KaBOOM’s requirements and deployed staff to the school to collect the samples to ensure that Ashland Elementary’s new playground development continued on schedule. Seeing so many selfless volunteers sacrificing their time to help construct the playground, Shield saw this as a perfect opportunity to donate all sampling and consulting costs to qualify this as a KY EXCEL Voluntary Project with the KY Division of Compliance Assistance. In the end, Shield was successful in assisting Ashland Elementary with securing the additional $85,000 in funding provided by KaBOOM to improve their 20-year-old playground.
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