Students at Martha Lake Elementary School are $30,000 closer to their goal of a new playground after winning a nationwide video contest and receiving a matching grant from the local Hazel Miller Foundation.

Fourth graders created a two-minute video to help raise money to replace their outdated playground equipment. The video was one of the top five chosen by voters on KaBOOM!, making them eligible for a $15,000 grant.

“In order to win this competition, parents, teachers and kids asked everyone they know to vote for our playground video, but we also had to reach out to groups beyond our school community,” said Katie Amodei, a volunteer with the school’s PTA. “We asked alumni associations, City Council members, churches, local unions, fire departments and many other groups to vote for us.”

When the Hazel Miller Foundation heard how hard the community was mobilizing to vote for the fourth graders’ video, they agreed to match the winnings, plus match funds the PTA plans to earn in an upcoming auction on June 3.

The old playground equipment at Martha Lake Elementary has to be removed because it no longer meets safety standards.