The beautiful wooden train in the Bannockburn Nursery School’s playground has been transporting children to wherever their imaginations take them for more than twenty-five years. That’s a lot of trips to the country, the beach, the moon!

Current BNS parent Sara Williams has the unique privilege of watching her daughter enjoy the same train today that she rode when she was a child. Says Sara, “Every time I pull into the parking lot and see that train, memories come flooding back about my childhood and many days spent out on that playground pretending to be a conductor or making believe that I was on a trip to the moon. Seeing Sammie on the train at BNS, in the same neighborhood I grew up in, provides an amazing sense of continuity across multiple generations. I feel very lucky that we get to experience something as special as this.”

The train at BNS is so beloved because it stimulates children’s imaginations in a way that a standard climbing structure doesn’t. It demands the question, Where will we go next? But after twenty-five years, the thousands of trips for hundreds of Bannockburn children have taken their toll. The oft-repaired slats can no longer be secured.

As part of the school’s current fundraising drive, they are asking people in the BNS family as well as in the larger Bannockburn community to help Save the Train. Once the designated funds are raised, the plan is to rebuild the train as it is–a structure that adults (i.e. former children) will recognize, current children will love, and that will last the community another generation.

If you would like to help Save the Train, donations can be mailed to the school or made via the website, at www.bannockburnnurseryschool.com. And if you have any information about the history of the train or memories you’d like to share, email bannockburnnursery@gmail.com

— by Emily Parsons