PARKERSBURG - Dan Bruns and his family - like many others in Parkersburg - lost their home to a tornado May 25. As part of self-prescribed therapy, he and friends returned after a few weeks to their routine playing sand volleyball in the city park.

On one outing, Bruns asked his daughter, Jena, for a little space.

"I told her to go play," he said.

Easier said than done, as Jena pointed out.

"She said, 'Duh, Dad. Look around. There's nothing here.'"

Bruns realized Jena, 7 years old at the time, was right. Equipped with antiquated slides before the storm, the park after the wind died was essentially barren.

"I just told her we'll have to do something about that," Bruns said.

The volleyball gang and others in the community got busy, and this week residents and helpers from across the region will cap what turned out to be a $500,000 project. They are working, appropriately, with Miracle Recreation Equipment, which is distributed in Iowa by Boland Recreation of Marshalltown.

Volunteers spent three days last week assembling playground equipment on the city's east side. Some of the same folks - and dozens of fresh recruits - got started Wednesday on a project three times its size on Parkersburg's west side.

"We're just a little overwhelmed at the moment," Bruns said, poring over schematics for post holes.

No small wonder. The playground will cover several acres, assembled from hundreds of parts and thousands of nuts and bolts. The molded plastic and metal railings required three semi-trailers for delivery. The structure needs 270 post holes.

"The complexity of this playground equipment is astounding," Braden Rogers said.

He and other volunteers representing Target Distribution eventually got a climbing wall bolted together.

"It's like a huge puzzle. We only had six pieces, and we could hardly do it," Rogers said.

Laura Fuller showed up with colleagues from Mediacom, which gave its representatives time off with pay to lend a hand.

Fuller and her family lived in Parkersburg last year.

"Four houses down from the high school," she said.

The school was shredded. So was Fuller's house, and the family moved to Waterloo. She returned Wednesday to Parkersburg and spent the morning shuttling green poles around the park.

"We were part of this community. It's one of the things we can do. So many people came to help us," Fuller said.

Amy Truax, volunteer coordinator for the project, says people can still get involved. The only requirement between today and Saturday is an interest in hard work and willingness to get dirty. For information on how to help, call (515) 371-0251.

"Anybody can do this. There's all sorts of things to do," Truax said.

The community will dedicate Miracle Park on May 25, and Truax predicts the equipment will be popular.

"I'm looking forward to playing on it myself."

Contact Dennis Magee at (319) 291-1451 or dennis.magee@wcfcourier.com.