Hillcrest Elementary kindergartner Heesung Choi works to invert herself as she scales the playground equipment Thursday outside the school. Hillcrest students, parents and teachers are raising money to repaint and renovate Ryan Gray Playground for All Children, the only wheelchair-accessible playground in the city by participating in the first Hillcrest Hawk Walk on Wednesday at Centennial Park.

Hillcrest School students, teachers and parents will be getting exercise Wednesday while trying to help keep a traditional Lawrence playground looking good.

The students will participate in the first Hillcrest Hawk Walk at Centennial Park aiming to raise funds to help paint equipment at Hillcrest’s Ryan Gray Playground for All Children, the only wheelchair-accessible playground in the city.

Wednesday’s walk will replace the school’s annual fall fundraiser.

“We wanted to do a walk because it just seemed healthier and more fun than hoisting around boxes of cookie dough,” said Julie Warren-Ward, the school’s PTO president.

Several schools have modified fundraisers to be more in line with the district’s wellness policy, she said. The students have asked family, friends and neighbors for donations in recent weeks, and parents have sought sponsorships.

The walk will be a start at funding about $6,000 for the PTO budget and about $15,000 to repaint part of the playground equipment. Warren-Ward said the PTO would re-evaluate how to proceed after the money is counted from the walk.

The playground, built in the early 1990s, includes a rubberized surface, which the district spent about $100,000 to replace recently. It’s named in honor of a former Hillcrest student who suffered from a brain tumor and used a wheelchair. He was 17 when he died in 1990.

Because it’s the only one like it Lawrence, parents often bring their children from across the city to the playground, Warren-Ward said.

Gray, the son of Dr. Captain and Kitty Gray of Lawrence, gained national exposure in 1988 as an unofficial mascot for the Kansas University national champion basketball team. Gray was a friend of coach Larry Brown.

The PTO spent $12,000 recently to paint red parts of the playground, and now they’re looking to improve the blue, Warren-Ward said.

For more information about the fundraiser, contact Warren-Ward at 331-4140 or ward2119@sbcglobal.net.