Flap may derail playground honoring Skyler

A vicious and public dispute threatens to derail plans to build a playground in honor of Skyler Kauffman, the 9-year-old Souderton girl who was killed in May.

Community members working under the name Project Safe Playground are scrambling to return the more than $1,500 they have collected while searching for new backers to continue their efforts.

Meanwhile, Skyler's mother, Heather Gebhard, has struck out on her own, condemning her former partners and hoping to launch a competing project.

"The Souderton community is very supportive and wanted to see this playground built," said Stephanie Haas, a Harleysville mother and lead organizer of Project Safe Playground. "I don't know why a mother wouldn't love to have a playground inspired by her daughter."

Haas said Wednesday that the falling-out stems from a dispute over a request by Gebhard for complimentary tickets to a project fund-raiser. Since then, it has devolved into a family feud involving Gebhard and Skyler's paternal grandmother.

Gebhard could not be reached for comment.

Skyler was found raped and strangled, dumped in a Dumpster behind her Souderton apartment complex, on May 9. A neighbor, 24-year-old James Lee Troutman, has been charged with her murder.

Within days of the killing, community members banded together to honor the girl. Building a playground seemed a fitting tribute.

Indian Valley AMBUCS, a Harleysville registered nonprofit focused on increasing mobility for the disabled, agreed to help with fund-raising.

Souderton's Borough Council set aside a patch of land along Chestnut Street for the playground.

And the Safe Playground group entered into preliminary negotiations with Designed for Fun - a Warminster-based playground-construction company - to begin design work. The playground was estimated to cost $200,000.

Everything seemed to be moving forward.

Then, on Monday, Gebhard, 30, posted on her Facebook page that Haas no longer spoke for the memorial effort and encouraged readers to make donations directly to her.

Within minutes of the original post, Skyler's paternal grandmother - Carol Kauffman - responded, criticizing Gebhard for "disrupting the wonderful job these people were doing."

Kauffman questioned whether what she saw as Gebhard's lax supervision of Skyler might have led to her death and whether Gebhard had spent money raised in her daughter's name appropriately. Gebhard shot back that Skyler never liked her grandmother.

Haas, mother of a 9-year-old girl, said Gebhard later threatened to sue if the Safe Playground group continued to use Skyler's name in fund-raising efforts.

The resulting fight was enough to scare off Indian Valley AMBUCS, which was hesitant to back the project with the family members at odds.

Organization officials said Wednesday that all the money it helped to collect would be returned to donors who supplied names when making their contributions. The rest will be funneled into the organization's AmTryke fund, dedicated to buying therapeutic tricycles for disabled children.

Haas, meanwhile, remains hopeful that with or without Skyler's name, a playground project can continue to raise awareness about violence against children.