MONTREAL - A playground in Little Burgundy was swarmed by volunteers Saturday, all pitching in to make a city park more fun for kids.

The Tyndale-St. Georges Community Centre recruited over 200 volunteers to put the shoulder to the wheel to refurbish the playground near Guy and St. Antoine, which will now be renamed in the honour of a well-known local volunteer and teacher Jessie Maxwell-Smith.

The park was even drawn up with a lot of input from the very kids who would be playing in it.

Several of the volunteers interviewed by CTV Montreal Saturday explained their motivation.

“I wanted to help for the little kids that would be playing in it,” said Nia Estwick.

“I think it's great to make a difference in my community,” said Tafari Thompson. “You know it's always good to give back and help out.”

The park will be named the Jessie-Maxwell Park, who was considered a valuable asset to the local populace.

“Jessie was like a second grandmother to me. I knew Jessie very well and she did a lot for the community,” said Malik Shaheed.

The park remake cost $140,000, cash put up by Foresters Insurance and the Southwest Borough of Montreal.

Without that cash, the playground would have been simply taken away.

“This playground it had very, very old equipment, and it was slated to become just a sitting area so we were threatened with losing the playgroun,” said Jen de Combe Executive Director of the Tyndale St-Georges Community Centre.

The volunteers even included a contingent from the Montreal Regiment in Westmount.

The entire impressive undertaking was to be completed on Saturday.