Volunteers and Dedham Parks and Recreation crews put the finishing touches – and the mulch – on a new playground at Churchill Park Monday.

When volunteer construction began Friday, about 40 to 50 Dedham residents gave up their mornings and their hands to help build a neighborhood playground many said would benefit area children.

"The volunteers have come together and they are here to work," Parks and Recreation Commission chairman Jim Maher said Friday.

They began digging holes for new equipment, and then when it arrived, volunteers began ratcheting and bolting new slides, swing sets and seesaws.

"Living up the street, I obviously have an interest in the park," said Dan Hart, a recently named Parks and Recreation commissioner.

Hart is also a part of the Mother Brook Community Group and helped push for the project prior to joining the commission.

Besides neighborhood volunteers and parks workers, six inmates at Norfolk County jail helped build the town's newest playground on Friday.

After a year of working on the concept, proposal and plan to build, Maher saw his commission's work pay off.

The new playground features a main structure for children between the ages of 2 and 5, a rock-climbing wall and the usual playground staples like monkey bars.

"This is more geared toward the littler kids in Dedham, but we have a lot of young families in Dedham," Maher said.

Parks and Recreation received $45,000 from the Mitigation Committee last year to help fund the playground project.

"It's not as big as Paul or Memorial [parks], but it is a great fit for the neighborhood," Hart said.

Despite a lack of parking due to the private road the park abuts, Dan Hart, parks commissioner, said the new playground will draw kids and families from neighborhoods the immediate area and many will walk or bicycle to the new palace of play.

"You're going to see families down here, you're going to see kids down here," Maher said, adding families will come out of the woodwork on a beautiful day to enjoy their new playground.

The new playground wraps up two years of revamping Churchill Park after Legacy Place paid for the baseball field to be renovated.

"To me it is amazing to see what the park looked like prior," Hart said.

With Churchill's playground finished, the commission will focus now on Condon Park. Parks and Recreation went before the Mitigation Committee last week and asked for funds to build a handicap-accessible playground at Condon Park.

"Hopefully when we do Condon, that is going to add more life to that neighborhood and more opportunities for those kids," Maher said.