People signing up to volunteer at the Wildcat Park construction project get a nametag, a job assignment and a chance to add their signatures to a big orange autograph board.

They also get some good advice.

“I’m reminding people it’s going to be a very warm day — it already is,” Keith Okerstrom told a couple of fresh recruits about 8:30 Tuesday morning. “So drink plenty of water.”

Okerstrom, a local chiropractor, figured he’d be handing out more than health tips before the day was out.

“We can avoid a lot of health problems if we can keep people from being dehydrated,” he said. “I have a feeling I’ll be passing out a lot of water — and sunscreen.”

After months of fundraising and a Memorial Day weekend flurry of site prep activity, the all-volunteer building project officially got under way about 8 a.m. Tuesday as scores of workers scurried around the grounds of Wilson Elementary School, home of the once and future community playground.

Brian Riches and Jamison Garner, two young Mormon missionaries operating out of Albany, said they jumped at the chance to help.

“We just love doing service,” said Riches, who comes from Milwaukee, Wis.

“We like getting out of the shirt and tie now and then,” added Garner, a native of Denton, Texas. “It also feels good to do some physical work.”

Gil Shotwell, a retired contractor from Corvallis, showed up with his tool belt to lend a hand. He volunteered with a similar project in Salem and wanted to do something for his new hometown.

“I worked on the Gilbert House a few years back,” Shotwell said. “I live here now and decided to come out and help.”

About 70 people turned out for the mroning shift Tuesday. While that was enough to get the ball rolling, organizers said they still need more hands to get the job done.

“We need about 150 per shift, so we’re a little shy right now,” said volunteer coordinator Darlene Kolb.

The project will continue every day through Sunday. There are three work shifts each day: 8 a.m. to noon, 12:30 to 5 p.m. and 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Volunteers are especially needed for weekday morning and afternoon shifts.

Much of the first day’s effort was focused on putting up the framework for the new play structure, which will have three parallel runs of slides and overhead rings, towers and climbing walls, tunnels and fire poles, all linked by an elaborate system of ramps, ladders, catwalks and bridges.

A skeleton of stout plastic beams angled up from holes in the ground like the bones of an enormous dinosaur as volunteers began the painstaking work of putting the superstructure together.

“Everything has to be predrilled,” said Wilson Principal Gerry Kosanovic. “You can’t put nails in this stuff.”

Teams of workers stayed busy Tuesday morning drilling holes in structural members that had been cut to length by other crews. Yellow-shirted captains kept the proceedings flowing smoothly, for the most part.

“Chaos — organized chaos” is how Wildcat Park Steering Committee member Lori Hendrick described it.

“Well,” she amended, “fairly organized.”

A good deal of organization has gone into the operation’s tool trailer — actually a semitrailer converted into an improvised warehouse for the tools and hardware needed to build the new playground.

Brick-and-board shelves provide storage for arrays of screwdrivers, wrenches, tape measures, vises, drills, extension cords, levels, T-squares and power saws, along with boxes of nails and screws, saw blades and drill bits. Come-alongs and staple guns hang from hooks on the wall.

Rows of hardhats share space on the floor with five-gallon buckets of hammers and mallets. Plastic milk jugs with their tops lopped off caddy small parts.

Outside, wheelbarrows rest in the shade beneath the trailer until their services are needed, while ladders lean against the side. Shovels, rakes and brooms poke their heads out of a big garbage can. Safety glasses and earplugs offer themselves from boxes on a folding table.

Former Benton County Sheriff Jim Swinyard stood guard over the tools, which had been donated by community members. His task was to make sure the tools were properly signed for, especially the more expensive equipment.

“The challenge is to keep everything catalogued so we can get them all back to people,” he said.

Larry Mattingly, sent out from Ithaca, N.Y., by park designer Leathers & Associates to act as project manager, said he thinks the Wildcat Park organizers have done a good job of laying the groundwork for building the playground.

Now, he said, it’s up to the community to supply a steady stream of volunteers to get the job done.

“They’ve set a pretty good stage here,” Mattingly said, looking around the bustling construction zone. “We just need the actors.”

Bennett Hall is the business editor for the Gazette-Times. He can be reached at 758-9529 or bennett.hall@lee.net.

WILDCAT PARK PROJECT

Wildcat Park was built by volunteers in 1989 at Wilson Elementary School, where the elaborate wooden structure did double duty as a playground for the school and the community. Last year it was dismantled for safety reasons. This week, hundreds of volunteers are building a new Wildcat Park on the same site.

The Corvallis Gazette-Times is chronicling this communitywide effort in the newspaper and on the Internet. Go to http://www.gazettetimes.com for daily stories, photos, construction updates and Webcam images from the project site.

Tuesday numbers

Volunteers: 290

Volunteer hours worked: 1,160

Funds raised: $143,000

Bottles of water consumed: 14 cases

Most urgent needs: Cordless and electric drills, drill bits, extension cords, hammers, tape measurers, shovels, food donations, more volunteers.

How to help: Go to http://www.newwildcatpark.org.

(Wednesday, May 30)