There’s some sweet music coming from Paul Bunyan Park in Bemidji now. The new musical playground took a few months of planning and fundraising, but now the instruments are finally installed for everyone to enjoy.

“I hope one day, a few years from now it will still be here. I hope it holds up well for all kinds of weather and I hope everyone that uses it really likes it,” says Daniel Roberts, a Boy Scout Member of Troop 25 in Bemidji.

Daniel Roberts started research for the project late last year as a way to obtain Eagle Scout ranking in the Boy Scout Organization. He loves music and had visited musical playgrounds while traveling with his family. He contacted various groups and people to raise $11,600 for park addition.

“People just came out of the woodwork. It was amazing! Virtually everybody that he asked said, ‘oh sure, we’ll contribute to that,’ and so organizations and clubs and individuals and friends and family members and all sorts of people started sending money,” says Greg Roberts, Daniel’s father.

Once he had the funds, Daniel then assembled a team of his Boy Scout troop and the Bemidji Parks and Recreation department to help physically install the instruments in the park.

Daniel Roberts says, “It was a little work. We had to drill holes and do all that to set them where we wanted them but I mean, the installation process and everything with putting them together took, maybe, 6 hours in total.

Paul Bunyan Park is an all-inclusive playground, which means it’s designed for anyone to use, although something that was missing was the sensory component, which is where the musical instruments come in.

“It opens up opportunities for kids who connect with the sensory and with music to get a whole different experience to, or an additional experience out of the playground. It’s accessible in that way and physically it’s accessible,” says Gay Albers, Daniel’s mother.

Daniel says he’s still amazed with how much support he received from the community. He hopes that everyone who uses the instrument will feel just as much excitement that he had while initiating the project.

“It’s really hard to believe, I mean, it’s just such a feeling! I’m so excited about it and really glad it’s done so that I can be an Eagle Scout soon,” says Daniel Roberts.

Daniel is only one badge away from the Eagle Scout ranking, although he says he’s in the process of completing it.

By — Shirelle Moore