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Transformed Green Schoolyard Opens At Fishtown Elementary School

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A Fishtown elementary school's playground has been transformed into an environmentally friendly space.

The former asphalt surface at the Alexander Adaire School along East Palmer Street now contains a new, safer play area and a green space featuring plants and trees with benches along a stone pathway running through it.

Denis Devine is an organizer with the Friends of Adaire. He says from design to completion the whole project took about four years. But, he says, it was worth the wait.

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"Two play mounds that kids love running up and down and we have a rain garden that is really the whole reason this got done," Devine said, "because it captures the storm-water runoff that would otherwise go to the Delaware [River]."

Superintendent Dr. William Hite says the youngsters who attend Adaire, as well as the teachers and staff, are pleased with the results.

"We're excited," Hite said. "The children are excited that they now have a classroom environment, a play space that is a result of something that used to be all asphalt."

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