As a child growing up in Old Lyme, Anna Reiter can remember playing on the playground at Cross Lane Park in Old Lyme during her brothers’ sports games. When she returned, all grown up and building a family of her own in Old Lyme, she was surprised by what she found when she brought her son to the same playground.

“It was funny to come back and say ‘wait a minute, this is exact same equipment that I played on when I was here,’” said Reiter.

After seeing some unsafe equipment at Town Woods Park, Reiter called the town Parks and Recreation department, hoping they would repair what was broken. Instead, they removed the piece. Reiter found out the two playground areas in town — Cross Lane Park and Town Woods Park — had been donated and that the town didn’t have money to repair or replace them. When Cross Lane was found to be too outdated for current safety regulations by an inspection earlier this year, the play scape was removed entirely.

So Reiter — who is the president of the Old Lyme MOMS Club, the soon-to-be vice president of the Junior Women’s Club and previously worked as a geologist — decided to put her fundraising experience to use in a way that would benefit her community by raising money to update the two playgrounds. She estimates it will cost around $15,000 to update the 10-year-old Town Woods Park and $150,000 for a new playground at Cross Lane Park.

The Junior Women’s Club has adopted the project as their main beneficiary, and Reiter said they have already raised around $6,000 from the groups’ annual Art Show last month. Reiter hopes to raise the rest of the money by organizing local fundraisers like a golf tournament, online kickstarter campaign and sponsorship and donations from town residents.

“We want to make sure were involving the community as much as possible,” she said. While she said people have been eager to sponsor specific playgrounds, the costly items are those things that are necessary for safety but are less glamorous. She said people are happy to sponsor a park bench, but are less enthusiastic about sponsoring poles and fencing.

Reiter said she has also been surprised to see high costs for heavy equipment and machinery, which she was used to dealing with from organizing excavation projects as a geologist.

“When you’re looking at that same piece of equipment and you’re like, ‘but I’m building a playground, does it still have to cost that much?’ It does. They’re not fun to fundraise for,” she said.

Reiter said the project will get help from the towns as well.

“The Towns of Lyme and Old Lyme have offered to give us some money depending on how much we raise,” Reiter said. She said that the she hopes to raise “as much as we can,” but if she was able to go to the towns with $10,000 by the end of July, she expects to be able to star renovations on Town Woods Park and complete them by fall 2015. She hopes to have the new playground at Cross Point completed by fall 2016.

In addition to finding funding from residents and the town, Reiter has been exploring grant opportunities as way to both increase financing but also to increase the quality of the playscapes. Reiter said that putting in equipment for kids with special needs and mobility issues will not only offer a service that is currently unavailable in town, but it will also open grant opportunities. Funding can also come from less expected places, like the American Academy of Dermatology, which will provide funding for playgrounds that offer shade structures and boards that provide information about safe sun exposure.

Reiter said that with updating, Old Lyme’s playgrounds can be a family destination which would be “great for the local economy,” in the way that playgrounds in neighboring Essex and East Lyme are. Reiter said many of the women in her MOMS club make a day of take their families to other towns playgrounds.

“You’re like ‘oh I’m going to be up in Essex anyway, I’m going to go to the playground, stop by the library and go into town and get something for lunch,’” Reiter said. “We don’t even think about doing that in Old Lyme.”

Reiter has enlisted her fellow moms and dads to make their travels to other shoreline towns’ playgrounds an opportunity to research what works, doesn’t work and what’s of the most interest to kids. While she said her data is not a precise science, a lot of what she has found is that the equipment that is most popular among kids of a wide age range is that which lets them be active — like slides and climbing ropes — and independent — like tunnels and fake storefronts for pretend play. Reiter said these opportunities for imaginative exploration are what make playgrounds so important.

“It’s a safe place for kids to be creative and spontaneous and let their minds go to town,” she said.

To donate to the project, contact the Lyme Old Lyme Junior Women’s Club at www.loljwc.com.

j.hopper@theday.com

Twitter: @JessHoppa