Nearly 500 students from Georgia Technical Institute constructed the 2,100-square-foot play area complete with swings, slides and climbing apparatus in Chalmette, an area that had been devastated by flood waters unleashed by Hurricane Katrina.

Squeals of laughter fill the air as children race around a newly built playground in the heart of St. Bernard Parish.

Five-year-old Christopher, who lives a short distance from the park, says he is crazy about his new play place.

"It's real fun and it's real cool," he says excitedly. "You can run real fast there and climb on stuff. I love it."

The project was the brainchild of college senior Nelson Davis, who is a member of the university’s Christian Campus Fellowship.

"About three years ago, I got an idea to hold a giant Easter egg hunt for the community," he said. "I started pitching the idea to others, but planned to hold the event in Atlanta. Someone had donated 20,000 plastic eggs to the cause, so it looked like it was going to move forward.

"Then, a few months ago, the Rocky Mountain Christian Church in Colorado contacted us, saying they had collected $20,000 for a project in the Gulf. They liked the egg hunt, but wanted something more tangible, more lasting," Davis said.

"That’s when we came up with the plan for a playground.”

Davis and fellow student Jacob Tucker, along with a dozen other students, had been making regular weekend trips to the storm-ravaged parish to work with cleanup crews. During lengthy semester breaks, they were joined by some 200 other students, who helped gut houses and shovel sludge from the streets. The campus ministry had even dubbed the effort "Geaux to the Gulf," to give it a Creole feel.

"Since we had already been working in that area on cleanup, it seemed natural to return with this park project," Tucker said.

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