On Saturday, more than 300 volunteers plan to work together to build playgrounds around Ames in one of the biggest ISU student contributions to the community in history.

The Leaders INspiring Connections community service project, Operation Playground, will result in the construction of three different playgrounds.

Construction on the playground is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. and will continue until the playgrounds are complete. Volunteers should meet at the Towers parking lot before going to the different locations.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony that moves to each of the three playgrounds is planned to begin at 3 p.m. Sunday.

“The three different playgrounds will be very diverse,” said Nathan Katzer, Operation Playground co-chairman.

Volunteers in charge of playground design decided to divide the three playgrounds to target different age groups, Katzer said.

The North River Valley Park location, 725 E. 13th St., is designed for kids ages 5 to 12 and will have more hanging and climbing equipment.

Old Town Park, 826 Douglas Ave., will have an educational design with “educational panels” featuring things like driving cars, and Gateway Park, 1500 Gateway Hills Park Drive, is designed for toddlers.

“It’s a little more conventional,” Katzer said.

Each playground will also feature typical playground equipment like slides, tubing and bridges, said Cody Stamm, Operation Playground co-chairman.

The committee talked to kids and parents, and the playground designs were modeled after what they wanted to see at the playgrounds, Katzer said.

The more than 300 volunteers have come from greek houses, student groups and members of the Ames community, Stamm said.

LINC started looking for volunteers for the project in mid-October by notifying greek houses, dorm floors and other student groups, Katzer said.

“We’ve had a lot of cooperation from everyone,” Katzer said. “The planning is going terrific.”

LINC community involvement co-chairman Eric Peterson said each playground costs about $15,000. More than $45,000 was raised for the project in total — one of the largest student donations to the city yet.

Community members outside of Iowa State were also highly influential in the success of the project. Businesses, neighborhood associations and the Ames City Council donated the rest of the money needed, along with the university.

The city donated $9,000 to the cause.

“[The money] just came from all over the community,” Peterson said.

Landscape Structures, a playground manufacturer, sold LINC the equipment at a discount because of the large amount ordered, Stamm said.

Landscape Structures employees will also be at the building sites to help volunteers.

“It’s been a huge community effort,” Peterson said.