has not been officially opened.

The $50,000 playground at Shelly Bay Park will be opened by the Bermuda Junior Service League tomorrow.

But youngsters have already taken advantage of the newly-assembled equipment over the past week.

The playground includes a lot of new ideas for children like a log roll and tunnel slides as well as more traditional slides and swings. There is an area for toddlers separate from the older children's area which is built-in.

Children climb in and then can either climb or slide out.

The $50,000 for the playground was raised by the Junior Service League after they were offered three sites by the Government.

Co-chairman of the playground committee, Mrs. Nancy Pierson said: "The League started the whole idea about two years ago. We chose Shelly Bay because it already has a beach, with fairly shallow water, has parking and is fairly central.

"We took it back to the League and they gave 25 percent of that year's funds to help.'' The committee then began to send out corporate letters of appeal to companies in both the local and international trade sectors. That raised $20,000.

A further $25,000 was raised when the playground was adopted as one of the three charities benefiting from the End-to-End Walk.

The Department of Youth and Sport helped by waiving duty on the money to take the total amount to $50,000.

Mrs. Pierson said: "The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Parks have prepared the park but we have raised the money for the playground.

"There is a lot of new equipment there. Things have come a long way in playground equipment.''