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Stories From Main Street: New York School For The Deaf Gets New Playground 3 Years After Sandy

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- Students at the New York School for the Deaf finally have a place to play three years after Superstorm Sandy destroyed its old playground.

The school needed donations and WCBS 880 broadcast an appeal in January 2014 after parent Jitka Seck asked for help.

"Got up one morning, put WCBS on, as I usually do, and on came your report," Steve Goodstein, an eighth-grade teacher at the Louis M. Klein School in Harrison, told WCBS 880's Sean Adams.

Goodstein alerted fellow teacher Dana Morello and suggested that their students raise money.

"We asked if we could come do a visitation. They invited us in. We spent the afternoon with the students of the New York School for the Deaf," Morello said.

"We saw their playground, and there was weeds everywhere, some pieces were falling off," said Brett McLaughlin, who was in sixth grade at the time.

"It's just crazy to think that a kid wouldn't have a playground," 13-year-old Ava Zinman said.

Paige Lipman, 13, learned they're not all that different.

"All children want to just get their ideas out and just like communicate with each other," Lipman said. "Even if it's just with sign language or by talking."

Damaged playground equipment at New York School for the Deaf in White Plains
Damaged playground equipment at New York School for the Deaf in White Plains in January 2014. (credit: Sean Adams/WCBS 880)

The Harrison students held a carnival and raised $7,000.

"Kids who couldn't attend donated money anyway," Christopher Demirjian, 14, said.

Students at Suffern High School and Forest Hills High School also donated money, as did the Tom Carvel Foundation.

When the ribbon was cut on the new playground, it was a stampede, as children mounted the slide and rocked the teeter-totter.

"I had a vision, and I kept on looking and there was a playground there, and now -- pow! -- we go it, and finally it's here," second-graders Alyn Diaz and Jaidalys Rodriguez said through a sign language interpreter.

"Thank you for giving us all those donations and giving us a new playground," student Ricky Wiltshire said through an interpreter.

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