Published: July 24, 2008 12:19 am      

A Playtime Paradise

Muse family donates 2nd playground to local YMCA

PALESTINE — During the 1930s, the Palestine YMCA provided a place for Lamar Muse to have fun as a young man growing up during the Great Depression.

As Muse matured into a highly successful businessman, founding Southwest Airlines, he never forgot the place which helped him in those early years, donating thousands of dollars to help the YMCA improve its facilities and programs.

Now more than 70 years later, the YMCA continues to reap the benefits as Muse’s daughter, Deborah Muse, owner of Dallas Custom Swings, has donated and installed new playground equipment in front of the YMCA for use by local preschoolers.

The playground equipment is the second set donated and installed by Deborah Muse, who also provided smaller scale equipment for use by the Y’s toddlers in May 2007, in honor of her father, who passed away in February 2007.

The new playground is in honor of her half-sister, Lisa Muse, who died unexpectedly at age 44 in November 2007.

Lisa Muse had been among family members present in late January 2007 when Lamar Muse had presented a large donation to the YMCA a week before his death, Deborah Muse said.

“Lisa just thought this place was great,” Muse said. “Of course we didn’t know at the time that the Lord was going to take her on Nov. 23. Lisa died in her sleep of natural causes. I just wanted to honor her in the same way I honored my dad.”

The preschool-aged playground had already been planned, Muse explained, from the time of Lamar Muse’s final visit.

“I’m in the playground business and there’s no way this YMCA named after my grandparents should have second-rate playground equipment,” she said. “I had told them I would make sure they got two playgrounds, one for their toddlers and one for their 3-, 4- and 5-year-olds, in honor of my dad.

“I just decided when Lisa died that I would put this one in in honor of her. I just felt like it was the right thing to do.”

The children are eager to use their new playground, YMCA childcare director Carl Simons said.

“It’s really exciting,” Simons said. “It’s been fun working with Deborah on it. The kids are super-excited.”

The new equipment replaces several small pieces of equipment that had been in a fenced yard at the left front of the YMCA, near the Steven Bennett Aquatic Center.

Muse’s crew prepared the site, removing the pea gravel, laying black ground cloth, sinking stabilizing poles and mounting the heavy gauge plastic and vinyl-covered steel climber and slides, then blanketing the ground with a thick bed of cedar filling for cushioning.

Muse estimated that the equipment, made by Landscape Structures in Delano, Minn., and the labor to put it in would have cost the YMCA approximately $35,000 had the Y purchased it and paid for installation. The smaller toddler playground would have been approximately $20,000, she said.

Although the YMCA could have paid about $20,000 for less expensive equipment for the new playground if it were having to purchase it, Landscape Structures’ commercial public playground equipment is considered to be the best quality available today, Muse said, and should never have to be replaced.

“It’s like comparing a Mercedes Benz S-series 600 to a Geo,” Muse said. “They both have four wheels, they’ll both go 60 miles an hour, they’ll both get you from A to B in the same amount of time. It’s just how you want to get there.

“The quality of the materials, the dependability, the safety, the long-term durability, the warranty — the Y will never have to replace this playground.”

YMCA director Michael Oranch said he was grateful to have donors such as the Muse family to provide such quality equipment for the YMCA’s members, particularly active equipment that will help get kids moving and combat obesity and Type 2 diabetes.

“I think it’s absolutely fabulous,” Oranch said. “Deborah Muse’s generosity just makes something possible that we probably wouldn’t have done for ourselves. This provides our children with an activity brighter, more colorful, cheerful and challenging than we had for that age group.

“We’re just very fortunate to have benefactors like the Muse family. It’s donors to the YMCA that keep it going. We never forget that.”

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Beth Foley may be contacted via e-mail at bfoley@palestineherald.com