6:05 a.m.

The sun is just cresting the trees, casting long shadows over the fenced expanse of concrete behind the Cranberry municipal center.

It's quiet, with only the sound of early birds chirping and traffic from Route 19, a couple football fields away. Just outside the chain-link, a lone deer strolls past. Is it wondering about the wooden horses standing ready? The squatting sets of stairs to nowhere? The scattered squares of board? So many puzzle pieces awaiting assembly.

This day has been a long time coming. Three years since township officials put it on record that a skateboard park would be in Cranberry's future. Someday.

That someday was June 18 when more than 200 volunteers signed up to build a skate park behind the Rochester Road municipal center.

Kids had been pleading for such a park for many years, frustrated by being chased away from parking lots and cul-de-sacs; hungry for a place to call their own.

7:15 a.m.

It's 45 minutes before the real work starts, but already things are buzzing. A woman with work gloves tucked into her belt arrives. A trio of teenage boys in black T-shirts and work boots lean against a wall, cocked and ready to fire. Municipal workers are setting up tents and tables in the parking lot, stacking bagels and doughnuts in the rec center.

Excitement is building.

The turning point for the project came when American Eagle, with its corporate headquarters about 5 minutes away, agreed to contribute $80,000 toward the $100,000 cost of developing the park. Township supervisors contracted with KaBOOM!, a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit group that specializes in helping communities design, finance, and construct skate parks and playgrounds through a program called ESKAL8.

The township agreed to donate the land, the concrete foundation and the fencing as well as the manpower to lay the groundwork. KaBOOM recruited American Eagle to cover the cost of the design and the skate park features such as prefabricated ramps and grinding rails.

8:55 a.m.

Soft rock is blaring from the supersized speakers in the parking lot just above the work site. Dozens of men, women and teenagers -- officials estimate about 225 -- have gathered for a group picture and now the work is beginning. Boards are lifted, paint cans carried, screws turned, nails driven.

Inside the municipal center, a dozen Girl Scout Cadettes from Roxan Boyd's Troop 727 are entertaining the little ones, children under 14, who are too young to swing a hammer or handle a drill. There are crafts, movies, and basketball planned.

Lynn Arrington is one of nine captains recruited to lead teams of volunteers on build day. The captains got some extra training during a special planning session the day before.

Director of public affairs for the Cranberry stake center of the Mormon Church, Arrington recruited about 20 church members to help with the project. None of her four daughters -- Ashley, 17, Broke, 13, Jaelyn, 11, and Kelly, 9 -- are skaters, but all plan to buckle on roller blades and take a turn or two around the finished product.

"This is about us all appreciating the township and wanting to help with a project that benefits the community and keeps kids engaged in good things,'' Arrington said.

Jack Cohen, a township resident and director of the Butler County Tourist Promotion Agency, is on hand to help with the food. He's no skater, but he's interested in seeing Cranberry add to its list of recreational offerings.

Noon

The work is half done. Volunteers are sweating. The grill is smoking. Lunches of burgers and dogs are being served in shifts.

The new park is beginning to take shape. Roll-ins and fun boxes have been built. Some ramps and grinders are up.

Mike Diehl, the township's parks and recreation director, is pleased. "It's going well. People are keeping busy."

Brenda and Andy Psenick of the township's Fox Run neighborhood like the idea of the township answering the needs of a segment of its community. "We did this in 1990 when the township built Playtime Palace (a large play facility at the Route 19 Community Park.) The township needed a playground and we wanted to help. Well, the township needs a skateboarding park and we want to help with that, too,'' said Brenda Psenick.

Their 19-year-old son, Michael, enjoyed skateboarding in his early teens. Whether 7-year-old Mikayla will take up the sport, they don't know. "But, it's not safe on the streets or in the parking lots. A lot of these kids are really talented. They need a place to go,'' said Andy Psenick.

Bob Wise, of the Spring Meadow neighborhood, is one of the volunteers from the Seneca Valley Junior Football Association who has turned out for the event. "We're into community, not just football. This is big for the community,'' said the father of three -- 7-year-old twins Sean and Katie and 9-year-old Megan.

Steve Parks, 14, of the Clearbrook neighborhood, has been skating for three years on the streets and in parking lots. He was among a group of teens who wrote to the township, pleading for a real skate park. He's on hand to help "to get it done, and done fast. I want to skate."

His buddy, 14-year-old Sean Hamilton of Unionville Road, said he looked forward to build day "as a lifetime opportunity. I can help build it and skate it. That's cool."

1:50 p.m.

Diehl smears No. 45 sunblock over his reddened head and face. There's a small glitch with a grinding rail, a problem caused by the manufacturer. Can't be fixed today. He's disappointed but keeping it in perspective. "That's it. The only problem. That's not too bad,'' he says as he slips away again. About 90 minutes to go.

Cranberry Manager Jerry Andree said the township is committed to meeting the demands of the community for more and more recreational offerings. There are two major municipal parks, a swimming complex, and a host of smaller green spaces throughout the township. There's a senior-teen center and a recently expanded library in the municipal center. The municipal golf course is in its third season. Plans are in the works for a third municipal park, the township's largest. "People's tax dollars at work,'' he says.

2:55 p.m.

Countdown time. Wooden horses are being dismantled. Planter benches are being filled with soil. Debris is being swept from the concrete. Most of the attractions are just about finished.

Everybody expects this skate park will get a lot of use. There aren't many in the region. A skateboard center opened in Butler in April 2004. When the township hosted a planning meeting, about 35 kids showed up to give their input and they weren't just from Cranberry. They came from Beaver County and Zelienople, even Fox Chapel. "We expect it will be a very busy place,'' Diehl said.

Though the skate park will get some illumination from nearby lamp posts, Diehl said it's not enough to make it safe for nighttime use. He said an electronic lock on the fence will restrict use to daylight hours.

4:10 p.m.

A plastic mural with skate scenes has been attached to the chain link fence announcing: "Cranberry Skatepark, American Eagle Outfitters Foundation."

The congratulatory speeches have been made. American Eagle notes it's the company's seventh skate park. KaBOOM has done 10, finishing one recently in St. Louis. Meghan Fugate of KaBOOM tells the worn out but pumped up volunteers they've done real well.

The skate park has been emptied and the volunteers stand outside as the gate opens and the first of the boarders and skaters roll forward.

Sailing.

Grinding.

Flying.