WASHINGTON PLAYGROUND EQUIPMENT GETS FACELIFT; YOUNGSTERS JOIN IN TO GIVE SCHOOL PLAY LOT A TOUCH OF COLOR

Washington Elementary School playground equipment is getting a new look in preparation for the school's opening next week.

A group of youngsters who are members of the Cape Girardeau Junior Optimist Club from the nearby SEMO Community Treatment Center were using bright red, yellow and green paints to give swings and climbing bars a brilliant look of color Tuesday.

"We'll be painting all of the playground equipment," aid Steve Motton, a youth specialist at the center at 609 N. Middle. "When we have completed this project we'll re-paint the U.S. map that was painted on the parking lot behind the school three years ago."

"This is great," said Shirley Sullivan of the Washington PTA group. "The children will be surprised when they come to school."

Sullivan said a Cape Girardeau business Steve-Mark Inc. provided the paint and brushes for the equipment.

"The PTA will pay for the map paint," said Sullivan. "This takes a special type of paint and had to be special ordered.

"We're so pleased that these young people from the treatment center are doing the work," said Sullivan. "It will certainly bring some visibility to the school."

"We're involved in several volunteer projects," said Motton. "We're especially pleased to offer a hand at Washington School. We're neighbors and we have had sort of a partnership developing between the center and Washington's Parent Teachers Association and the Community Liaison Council." The group previously helped the school in a joint fund-raiser garage sale and flea market.

The new, 24-bed center has been in operation since December. It provides programs for troubled youngsters ages 13 to 17 who have truancy problems or have become involved in some criminal activity.

"One of the programs involves volunteer work by the youngsters," said Motton. "As part of the rehabilitation process they have to log a certain number of volunteer hours before they can be released."

Some of the youngsters also attend school or participate in classes at the center.

"We serve a wide area," said Motton. "We have students here from the Bootheel and from areas near the metropolitan St. Louis area."

The facility consists of two residential buildings housing about 20 boys.

"We have a day-treatment program at the school which involves several youngsters," said Motton.

The $1 million complex, consisting of two residential cottages and an administrative building, was financed by the Southeast Missouri University Foundation. The Division of Youth Services has a 15-year lease-purchase agreement with the university, after which the complex will become the property of DYS. The facility is adjacent to a Southeast Missouri State University parking lot but it fronts Middle Street.

James L. Davis is manager of the youth center.

The center has a program called Operation Involvement where university students assist the DYS staff in working with troubled youths.

The center has a staff of 28, not counting university students.

Under the program Southeast Missouri State University students work with youths, monitoring their activities and spending time with them after school. Another part of Operation Involvement permits some youngsters to live with Southeast students.

"It's a foster brother-sister program with DYS kids that for some reason can't live at home," explained Motton.