temperatures for hours last weekend to raise money for new playground equipment.

The PTA, led by president Mr. Ken Pitcher and vice president Mrs. Roseann Pitcher, asked to man the gates at the Eastern Counties cricket final at Lord's.

In exchange St. David's Cricket Club and the Eastern Counties Cricket Association agreed that the school would receive nine percent of the gate receipts.

And Mrs. Pitcher yesterday told The Royal Gazette that through manning the gates, parking cars, collecting donations, and earlier fund raising, the school was expected to purchase and install $6,330 worth of new playground equipment this month.

She estimated that about $2,000 was raised by manning the gates and collecting donations last Saturday.

"We had a total of about 18 volunteers that day,'' said Mrs. Pitcher. "And out of those about 12 were parents.

"A couple were from St. Luke's AME, and the rest were people in the community who just said if it was for the children, they wanted to help out.

"We had a great time while on the gates.

"I really take my hat off to the group that came out on Saturday. We actually ended up having too many volunteers.

"I also have to give some of the credit to St. David's Cricket Club and the Eastern Counties Cricket Association for allowing us to man the gates.'' Mrs. Pitcher noted that the first group of volunteers began work at 6.45 a.m.

and the last group finished around 5.45 p.m.

The children, she added, collected $647 in donations in less than an hour.

"It's never a problem to get people in this area to donate or assist with something that is needed for children,'' Mrs. Pitcher said.

"We will try to do anything that we can to enhance learning for our children.

We realise that Government cannot pay for everything and we will see that our children are not deprived.'' The playground equipment, which is used frequently by St. David's students and children attending cricket games at Lord's, will also be accessible to special needs children.