Actor, Wife Donate to Playground Fund

Actor Kirk Douglas and his wife, Anne, took their campaign to fill Los Angeles schoolyards with zigzag ladders and tube slides a notch higher Wednesday, awarding $738,000 in grants to 38 schools.

Douglas, star of “Spartacus” and dozens of other films, and his wife donated $1 million in 1997 to establish a fund to beautify and refurbish playgrounds. The Riordan Foundation, established by Mayor Richard Riordan to help schools, also contributed to the $2.5-million fund, as did the Wilbur May Foundation and Anita May Rosenstein.

Seventeen schools in the San Fernando Valley received grants Wednesday to beautify and refurbish their playgrounds.

“The piece that was missing for our school was modern playground equipment,” said Laverne Potter, a teacher at Encino Elementary School. The Anne and Kirk Douglas Playground Enhancement Awards gave the school a $25,000 grant.

Instead of clambering onto aging, unpainted monkey bars that sometimes overheat in the sun, about 650 students will soon enjoy colorful, plastic-coated slides, tunnels, and bridges at the school, Potter said.