RAYMOND – Last summer, as part of the Pentagon’s Innovative Readiness Training program, an initiative designed to provide real-world training opportunities for members of the armed forces, roughly 420 military engineers built a new parking lot, five new shooting ranges, three new staff cabins and more at Raymond’s Camp Hinds.

The reservists also renovated the Messer Training Center at the camp located off Plains Road, which was named after the late John Messer, a dedicated supporter of the Pine Tree Council of the Boys Scouts of America.

Observing the overhaul unfold, Messer’s daughter-in-law Alissa Messer of Raymond had an idea. Could the military help out at Raymond Elementary School, too?

At Camp Hinds, the joint task force of military engineers provided labor, construction equipment and fuel for the project, saving the Boy Scouts roughly two-thirds of construction costs. Messer, who has a first-grader, Isabella, at Raymond Elementary School, wondered if the school district could obtain similar assistance for a long-desired project to clear a playing field in the woods next to the school’s playground. Messer is married to Jeff Messer, who sits on the board of the Pine Tree Council.

Now, students at the school play on a steep hill next to the playground – a situation that is widely regarded as insufficient, Messer said.

“They’ve all said to us, ‘We just want a big play yard to play in to get our energy out without falling,’ ” Messer said.

So Messer approached Deb Hutchinson, the school’s vice principal, and asked whether she could spearhead a project to apply for military assistance.

“I said, ‘Deb, do you think I can run with this?’ And she said ‘Absolutely,’ ” Messer said. “I’ve kind of been the project manager, if you will.”

In September, a month after the military pulled out of Camp Hinds, Messer and school district officials began to craft an application to the military assistance program. They plan to send the application by the end of the December, according to Regional School Unit 14 Facilities Director Bill Hansen.

According to Hansen, the clearing would take place on a 160-by-220-foot area of district-owned woods to the west of the school. The school district would provide fill and materials for a drainage system and fencing, Hansen said. But, as with Camp Hinds, the military would provide the labor, as well as the construction of a potential storage shed on the site.

“Obviously, if the (Innovative Readiness Training) program could finance all the labor, it makes it a much lower cost project,” Hansen said.

If the application is approved, the work would take place in the summer of 2016, Hansen said. Depending on Pentagon approval, military engineers are expected to cycle through Raymond for the next four summers, as part of the military assistance program.

To Hansen, the presence of the reservists presents a great opportunity for the school district to improve the elementary school recreation area.

“I think it’s a great opportunity to utilize a great resource while they’re in the area,” Hansen said. “This project would actually clear (some) of these woods out to create a level grass play field – the kids don’t have that right now behind the school and the playground,” Hansen said. “There’s really no place for them to run, kick the ball. There isn’t real estate there for that. So they’re having to play on the side of a hill, which as challenging.”

But to Principal Randy Crockett, the hour is early yet.

“There are a lot of pieces to that before we get anywhere near approval,” he said.

The town of Raymond is poised to get in on the action, as well. Pending Pentagon and federal funding approval, next year, the military will erect a new communications tower near the intersection of Valley Road and Raymond Hill Road, restore and rehabilitate several fire ponds, improve the sightlines and restore vegetation at the town’s public safety building, and construct a building for equipment storage.