AUGUSTA, Ga () – Covenant Presbyterian Church holding a special playground dedication for its members.

This new playground comes after the original was destroyed by Hurricane Helene almost a year ago as well as an anonymous $30,000 donation.

I spoke to Andy Cooke, one of the Co-Pastors at Covenant Presbyterian Church, who tells me they were devastated when they saw the destruction of the old playground.

“This is an important place for our entire community, and we feel like it’s something that we want to offer to the community which is why we always leave the playground open to the public so we wanted to rebuild that as quickly as we could,” said Cooke.

Cooke says the rebuilding of this playground would not have been possible without the help of the community.

“What has been really touching is just seeing how many people outside of the church and pre-school, how many people in the community this space means so much to and how many people are willing to give of themselves and to give money to bring this back to life. It’s been a joy to me to see our partnership with the community,” Cooke said. 

Right after the ribbon cutting, dozens of kids ran to the slides, swings and other fun parts of the new playground.

With the re-build, they were able to change and add some new features.

“We’re excited that it is now more accessible to all different kinds of children and parents than it used to be and has many features that will make it more inclusive to many people in our community,” said Cooke.

The space is not only used by the church but also the preschool and is a resource to the community.