Vibrance has returned to a playground near the old Pamplin School thanks to the efforts of 17-year-old Sean Murray.

Saturday marked the official celebration of the playground’s renovation. Pamplin Town Council Member Sarah Hamlett and Pamplin Mayor William R. Horton presented Murray with a plaque recognizing him for his dedication in restoring the play area.

“It’s a great step to rebuilding our town again,” Horton said. “We’re having to do this just one step at a time, and this was another one of those great steps for us.”

He praised Murray for his hard work.

“He’s a great young man,” Horton said. “I’m proud of his accomplish he’s done here.”

He cited Murray’s involvement in fundraising as well as the actual renovation.

“He did it all, and we just tried to pitch in everywhere we could, as the town and the council, but it was all Sean,” Horton said.

It was around 10 months ago Murray was sitting on the play area’s merry-go-round with Alexx Swann, and they were taking note of how rusted up and hole-filled it had become.

“So, we thought that we would try to do something about it,” he said.

He went to Pamplin Town Council in November, requesting permission to restore the playground while presenting a cost projection.

To raise funds, “we did yard sales, and Keith Vogt … he and his wife put together a stew, and the stew brought in about $1,500,” Murray said.

He said the amount of money necessary in order to do the renovations ended up being about $5,000.

It translated into a variety of improvements on the playground. The swingset was re-equipped with swings, which it had been lacking, and putty was applied to patch up the holes in the merry-go-round.

“We replaced the monkey bars,” Murray said. “We painted the merry-go-round and the swingset, and the pagoda was built by Shawn Evans and my dad (Patrick Murray).”

Between the fundraising and renovation work, Murray estimated it involved more than 100 man-hours.

He said it felt great to see the project completed and now open to the public.

“I like knowing that me and just a few other people put this together,” he said.

He wanted to give back to the community, but that did not fully explain why he went about the whole endeavor.

“It was also more of a personal thing, personal project, because when I was a kid, we’d always come down here,” he said.

The impact of the playground restoration on the people in the community was already evident on Saturday. Tammy Stalker, of Pamplin, brought her three-year-old granddaughter, Kyndall, to play and was excited about the improvements.

“I think it’s wonderful, and Sean’s a wonderful little boy for doing it, and he’s done several projects for this community already, and this is one of his biggest ones,” Stalker said. “And having five grandchildren living across the street, I love it. So, I’ll be using it a lot.”

Hamlett, who brought her 4-year-old son to play Saturday, said it had been around 16 years since the last time the play area had been renovated.

“There’s more children here now, and it’s definitely something that’s going to be great for the whole community,” she said.