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Asheville community volunteers and sponsors can "take a bow" for the generous support and hard work that they provided over the past five days to construct the new playground at the French Broad River Park. The playground was constructed over the past five days in a good old-fashioned "barn raising" style, for which over 1,000 volunteers contributed their labor, tools and donations to successfully build the new playground. This is the third playground the Asheville Parks and Recreation Department has constructed in the Asheville area using only volunteers.Dana Cavanaugh, project coordinator for Leathers & Assoc., said that Leathers & Associates helps to coordinate community-built projects all over the country similar to the one completed this weekend at the French Broad River Park. Cavanaugh says, "The Asheville Parks and Recreation Department has the most talented staff, and has done the best job coordinating and building the French Broad River Park than any group that our company has ever worked with. The response by the Asheville community volunteers was also extraordinary. The Asheville community really responded in a very strong way to complete this playground."
Community business sponsors also provide food and other services to help the volunteers stay on the job. Ingles and Bi-Lo provided a generous amount of food for the volunteers. Jim Orr, project coordinator for playground construction for the Asheville Parks and Recreation Department, also said the construction of the French Broad River Park Playground went very well. Orr says, "It is meant to be a community playground, and the community responded, in force, to help build their own playground. We are very pleased with how well things went with the construction of the French Broad River Park playground."
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Cavanaugh added, "This is the third playground that the Asheville Parks and Recreation has completed, so they have learned a great deal, and they now have a well educated and organized staff to help coordinate the construction of a community playground." 
RiverLink, the local organization whose mission is to help promote the development of the French Broad River front into parks and other outdoor recreation uses, also helped to sponsor and coordinate the construction of the playground. The Janirve Foundation donated the funds to purchase the materials and playground equipment used in the construction of the French Broad River Park playground.