By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
Mike Sharkey deals with blueprints all the time. Yet an Otis park project to honor his late grandson, Kanyn, gave him anxiety. Since Kanyn's unexpected death from medication complications last December at the age of one, his mother, Taylor Sharkey, donated a climbing wall to the Brit Spaugh Zoo in Great Bend. She worked with the Otis Fire Department to purchase a new toddler playground for the park in Otis.
"I didn't think it was going to be as intense or intricate as it was," she said. "I honestly had a smaller playground in mind so it's surpassed my expectations. My dad spent three weeknights cutting and rebuilding the bases. He rewelded everything. It was, honestly, probably twice the size of what I thought it was going to be."
READ MORE: Otis mother keeping son's memory alive with gifts to local parks
Sharkey Construction employees poured concrete for the playground on Nov. 7. The Sharkeys unpacked two pallets of playground equipment and kept outside help to a minimum due to the complexity of the project.
"We counted every pole," Taylor said. "We counted and inventoried every bolt and pipe. We touched every piece to double-count."
Taylor estimates 15-20 hours of prep work went into setting up the base of the playground. Many more hours went into piecing the playground together. Several area businesses donated materials to help finish the project.
"I kind of shot the idea to have it done by Thanksgiving," Taylor said. "I thought maybe that was unrealistic, but with everybody's donations and my dad pushing to persevere through it, it's going to happen by Thanksgiving."
One of Kanyn's favorite songs was "Wheels on the Bus." Fittingly, one of Taylor's favorite parts of the new playground is a bus step-up. She hopes the new playground will help families create their own special memories.