September 2017 - Doty Concrete

Buddy Benches installed at school for Eagle Scout project

Buddy Bench.

Doty & Sons manufactures concrete benches with recycled plastic lumber. Item B4151 is 5 foot long, 2 concrete legs, recycled plastic lumber back and seat with stainless steel hardware. The benches are great for recognizing individuals or groups, remembering loved ones (memorial benches) or class gifts. Recently a Boy Scout, Colin Good, came to us about his Eagle project. We worked with him so he could purchase three Buddy Benches for a local school. Colin organized the project which include installing concrete block and the benches. An article about the project recently ran in the local newspaper.

This article appeared in The DeKalb Daily Chronicle is copied here.

Collin Good, a Boy Scout from Troop 2810 chartered out of Sycamore Lutheran Church, recently completed his Eagle project. He installed three Buddy Benches at his former school, Southeast Elementary in Sycamore.

The idea of the Buddy Benches began in Pennsylvania in 2013 when a first-grader thought it would be a great concept and sold his school and community on it. Since then, many other schools across the U.S. have adopted the idea. The benches create a kinder playground culture by having a place for kids to sit if they don’t know what to do on the playground, are new to the school, or are just afraid to ask to join a game or group of kids. When other students see a child sitting on the bench, they should invite the child to join their group or sit down and get to know the child. It combats bullying and playground loneliness, and promotes awareness of the needs of others.

Concrete benches by Doty & Sons are great for Eagle projects.

Colin Good and Mark Ekstrom

Good began his project by presenting the idea to Southeast Principal Mark Ekstrom, who was excited about the concept and asked for three benches, one for each playground. At Ekstrom’s request, Good helped co-chair the school’s fall pie fundraiser, which is used each year for playground improvement. His responsibilities included creating a flier about the benches to hand out with the pie order forms, counting pie orders, unloading the delivery truck and sorting customer orders, delivering pies and thanking each customer personally for helping support his project.

The next phase of the project took place in the spring. Good and Ekstrom finalized their choices and ordered the benches from Doty and Sons. The Doty family has strong ties with Southeast School and provided a generous discount on the benches. The three back slats on each bench are engraved with the words “Southeast School,” “Buddy Bench,” and “Do a Good Turn Daily,” which both explains the purpose of the benches and is the motto of scouting. A few weeks later, Good organized volunteers to prepare the ground for each bench to be installed. This involved digging, adding sand and leveling and placing the concrete pavers for the benches to sit on. The benches were then assembled and bolted down.

The final piece of the project was to provide the students with education about the benches. Good and several other scouts shared a PowerPoint presentation and acted out several skits to demonstrate how to use the benches.

Concrete bench are durable and maintenance free.

Bench shown before installing.

Buddy Bench shown on site at Southeast School
Sycamore, IL

By Samuel Doty|September 16th, 2017|Uncategorized|

Concrete ping pong table with steel base and concrete cornhole sets for Dwyer Park, Winnetka, IL

Concrete ping pong table with steel base.

Concrete cornhole bag toss sets.

This summer Winnetka Park District renovated Dwyer Park. The project involved updating the entire park including new site amenities. Doty & Sons provided some of these amenities. Plans specified a concrete ping pong table and concrete cornhole boards, B.Y.O.Bags, for the park. We worked with Winnetka Park District’s landscape architect in selecting the products that fit best the new park’s landscape and design.

Doty & Sons currently offers two styles of ping pong tables. Item T1086030 has a concrete top with concrete base. Item T1086035 ping pong table has a concrete steel top with steel base. The architect selected T1086035 for this project. They also selected was a special terra cotta color top with black steel frame. They also selected two sets our Doty & Sons concrete cornhole/bag toss games in the same terra cotta color.

The park district recently held a grand opening at the park. The photographs show the ping pong table on site as well as the concrete cornhole sets.

Here is a list of features for the concrete ping pong table with steel base:

Regulation size table: 108” x 60” x 30” High
Table top thickness 4”
Heavy Duty Reinforced Concrete
Polished Playing Surface
Top secured to base with stainless steel bolts
Table top sealed with two coats of concrete sealer
Anti-Graffiti sealer top coat applied to the table top
Outside corners are 1/4” chamfered for child safety

Steel base: 72” x 48” x 26” High

Steel I-Beam Construction
Anchor plates, four per table
Steel frame powder coated in a two part process: 1.Zinc rich base coat 2. top coated with selected color
Standard color is black
Concrete weight: 1032 lbs.each section, 2064 lbs. total
Steel weight: 551 lbs.
Total weight: 2615 lbs.

Net Features: