Duo builds playland for family of injured vet
Zacc Dray is no stranger to mission work.
The Butler man has helped build orphanages in Africa and clean up after Hurricane Katrina.
But the project he worked last month was more personal and much closer to home.
Dray, his business partner David Hogue and contractors from their business, You Name It, transformed Scott and Ashley Filsinger’s Murrysville front yard into a children’s playland, complete with a rock-climbing wall and tire swing.
Scott Filsinger was injured while training other infantrymen on how to conduct a house raid in Afghanistan, Dray said. While he used to be confined to a wheelchair, Filsinger can now move with the aid of a cane.
With the new playground Filsinger can play with his children, four boys, who range in age from 3 to 9, and an infant daughter.
Dray smiled as he recalled the children running around, excited to see the structures take shape.
“It was pretty cool,” Dray said.
Dray knew Ashley Filsinger, a former Butler County resident, when they were growing up.
When Dray was diagnosed with testicular cancer eight years ago, Ashley helped with a benefit for Dray.
After surgery, Dray was battling nerve damage, and Scott Filsinger was dealing with the same problems, so Ashley and Dray began corresponding.
When he heard the Filsinger family needed a place where Scott could play with his kids, he went into action.
Dray’s mother, Christy Blackham, took charge of looking for donations, something she does in her work with the Lighthouse Foundation.
“I try to get a feel for what families need,” she said. “I looked around at things that needed done.”
A large part of the supplies needed for the playground construction were donated by the Butler County Parks and Recreation Department, Dray said.
He said they asked him what he needed and donated rock-climbing pegs, swings and a picnic table.
Blackham was determined the structure be able to be mobile in the event the family, who are renting now, move. They will be able to take the playground with them, she said.
Dray said they prebuilt some of the structures in their Butler garage and spent most of the next day moving them to the Filsinger home and finishing the construction.
Dray said he and Hogue routinely try to help others in addition to their regular contracting work.
“If someone needs help, we want to help them,” he said. “We want to do more. We want to use our contracting to help people.”
After the pair talked about it for a while, they decided they didn’t want to wait to start helping others, Dray said.
“We called someone and said, ‘Don’t think about it, just tell me what you need,’” Dray said.
