SCOTT ANDERSON/Courier-Post A group of homemakers who banded together recently to form Let the Children Play raised more than $35,000 to renovate a playground (above) at the Community Center on Somerset Street. Its grand opening was earlier this month.

John Alloway remembers hanging around the playground with his buddies, wasting the day away, being a kid.

Forty years later he's still hanging around playgrounds, but now it's just part of his job.

Alloway, 43, a lifelong resident, is a borough councilman who oversees local recreation.

"We didn't have a parks and playground program then like we have now," Alloway said. "We used to just grab a few kids and play baseball, football, hockey. . . . Now the community is putting money into it."

A revitalization of borough recreation facilities has been fueled by a group of homemakers who banded together recently to form Let the Children Play. The group raised more than $35,000 to renovate a playground at the Community Center on Somerset Street. Its grand opening was earlier this month.

"There was nothing there," said Chris Sodano, a 33-year-old mother of two toddlers. "There was a small amount of equipment that no one used, the fields were a mess and no one played on the basketball courts. We have 10 young kids among the parents in our group and we had to go to Cherry Hill or Pennsauken to play."

Sodano said the group "got under the skin" of borough officials to prod them for change. She said local government did its part in the revitalization by paying for some landscaping and installing safety surfacing under a new jungle gym her organization bought. The borough also refurbished the playground basketball court.

Despite some shortcomings, Sodano said she and the other mothers in her group still think Merchantville is a great place to live.

"It's like living in Mayberry sometimes," said Sodano, who has lived here for four years with her children and husband, Conzilio. "You get to see your kids grow and not get lost in the shuffle."

New upgrades of the community center playground and the borough's other park, Wellwood, at Browning Road and Maple Avenue, have improved fields for youth baseball and football leagues. Both leagues have been active for years and are run by community and church organizations. Saint Peter's church sponsors the football league.

There is no local soccer association, which is an introductory sport for many children. Many residents still enroll children in soccer leagues in Cherry Hill and Pennsauken, Sodano said.

Merchantville's one K-8 public elementary school has an athletic field on Clayton Avenue, but it's just over the six-tenths-of-a- mile square borough's border in Pennsauken.

Mayor Patrick Brennan said his town is trying hard to be more responsive to the needs of kids.

"It's a tough juggling act," said Brennan, in his ninth year at the helm of the borough. "We have finite resources that must be divided among infinite requests."

Brennan said a recreation committee of volunteers he and the council appoint "makes sure the kids come first and get as many programs as we can afford."

He estimates the borough allocated about $20,000 for recreation in the budget this year.