Facebook photo Lilli Spinnato (left) and Riley Bacchetti (right) with their grandfather, Pete Glotz.

The Sugar Grove Playground, located at Sugar Grove Elementary School, has received a pick-me-up from a dedicated local volunteer.

Peter Glotz volunteers for the Sugar Grove AmVets, American Legion, and for the borough of Sugar Grove.

“I don’t even live in the borough,” said Glotz. “I just help the town a lot by volunteering. I do whatever they ask me to, whatever comes along, usually just benches and cleaning up around town.”

Glotz said that he refurbished the park benches this past year and then the mayor, Peter Allenson, took him down to the playground and asked for his help.

“It was so overwhelming. I started with the small swings and, after all summer, I got it all done,” said Glotz.

Glotz did a lot of painting around the playground. He said the playground was 15-years-old and the paint was in “really bad shape.”

Morris Beedle helped Glotz repair the slide.

“I couldn’t do it by myself,” said Glotz. “Obviously, the part we got didn’t fit the way it was supposed to, took us three hours that day.”

It took Glotz all summer to complete the playground project. “Working out in the sun all day, three hours is all I can take, I’m up in my 70’s.”

Glotz said over time, three hours a day, added up to between 60 and 80 hours total for the summer to complete everything.

“I did it for the kids,” said Glotz. “The parents appreciate it and the grandparents that bring (the kids) and watch them. It’s an easy way to babysit for an hour a day.”

Glotz’s grandkids included.

” I have a few friends who have already taken their kids to it and they let me know it’s wonderful and to thank my father,” said Pete’s daughter, Sarah Bacchetti, of her “low-key, laid-back” father. “I’ve been to every playground in the area and, today when I took my kids there, my 10-year-old daughter said that is her new favorite playground.”

“He did tremendous,” said Allenson. “He painted it all, it looks great. He doesn’t just do that, he does everything for us.”

“He did the park benches, he helps us put up Christmas lights, he does a tremendous job,” said the mayor. “He did better than what I asked him to do. He’s always willing to help and he just works at it.”