SEASIDE – Pat Eterno and her 70 Head Start kids are pretty excited about Saturday.

It’s not because Saturday is a day off. Or because the forecasters predict good weather.

They’re excited about Saturday afternoon. By that time, a brand new playground, designed especially for 2-to-5-year-olds, will be set up in Broadway Park.

But that’s just one playground. Three other playgrounds also will be built on Saturday by volunteers from throughout the community.

Anybody can come to help, said Neal Wallace, Seaside public works director. The first shift is from 8 a.m. to noon and the second shift will be from 1 to 4 p.m.

For Eterno, the “Build A Playground Day” demonstrates “what a great community Seaside is. This is a perfect example of how committed this community is.”

When they play in the backyard of the Head Start building on Second Street, the children, ages 3 to 5, have a big sand box, a little playhouse, a tunnel to crawl through, a hill to run up and down and a giant play toy to crawl on.

“It’s nothing on the scale of the magnitude of what the playground will be,” Eterno said.

When the 2,500-square-foot playground is complete, Eterno plans to take the kids on “walking field trips,” to the swings and other equipment that will be only a few hundred feet away from the Head Start building.

“The best part is that the kids can cut through the parking lot and into the park without going into street.”

Eterno called the four playgrounds being planned “nothing but a big plus for the community.”

Funded largely by grants and donations – the Seaside Rotary Club raised $27,000 for the 2-to-5-year-old park – the four playgrounds will serve children of all ages. A second toddlers park is planned, along with an area containing swing sets and a fourth playground for children up to 12 years old.

A $50,000 Youth Legacy Grant from the state helped out, along with at least $10,000 from the Sunset Empire Park and Recreation District, donations from the Kiwanis Club and other small grants and price breaks from the equipment’s manufacturer.

The playgrounds were designed by SiteLines Park and Playground Products in Portland, which also designed and – with volunteer help – installed the playground at the city’s Cartwright Park.

The equipment, which has been stored at Seaside’s water treatment plant site, will be unwrapped and set out in Broadway Park tonight. Two Seaside High School students, who are helping the city as part of their Pacifica projects, will spend the night in the park guarding the equipment.

Then, early Saturday morning, a maintenance and construction crew from the Oregon Recreation and Park Association will lead the installation process.

Wallace expects at least 60 to 70 volunteers will work on the project. A busload of Tongue Point Job Corps students is coming, Head Start parents were invited and some local businesses said they would contribute labor.

“If it’s a nice day – and it’s supposed to be – 100-plus may show up,” he said. “It’s going to be a fun day at the park. Even if they don’t want to work, people can just hang around, maybe get coffee for the volunteers. Come on down and be part of the day.”

At noon, the Northwest Natural Chuckwagon will arrive with barbecued hamburgers and hot dogs for the workers. Activities are planned by the park district to entertain children while their parents are volunteering.

Once the equipment is set up in the holes that have already been dug by a crew from Precision Recreation Contractors, Wallace will call for concrete to be poured to keep the equipment in place. No one will be allowed to play on it until the concrete is dry, which could take a couple of days. On Monday, 435 cubic yards of engineered wood fiber will be spread on the playgrounds to finish them off.

Wallace has been looking forward to “Build A Playground Day” for months. The playgrounds will transform Broadway Park, he said, and they will mean that the park’s master plan is another step closer to completion.

When asked what Saturday will be like, Wallace grinned.

“It will be organized mayhem,” he said.