Georgia brothers raise money to bring 'dinosaur' to life in their neighborhood

KENNESAW, Ga. - Two creative kids in Kennesaw are changing the Legacy Park neighborhood one dinosaur-sized idea at a time.

Let's take a trip back in time to the days before bills and timesheets when that wasn't a creek behind your house but the Nile. The jungle gym was a ship - the swings were your launchpad!

In those days you weren't a kid, but rather an explorer, a pirate, or an astronaut.

When you're young the possibilities are endless.

"I see scales," Malachi Chung said while sitting on what most would call an "old," leaning tree stump.

It curves near a bridge in one of the several hundred acres in the Legacy Park neighborhood and is typically ignored during Chung family walks.

In June, Malichi and his younger brother Elijah Chung saw something in the mundane.

"They are the complete opposite of each other," their mother, Trish Chung said. "Elijah is my off-the-cuff and complete creativity. Malichai has always been the analytical one."

Differences aside, they both believe this tree has yet to reach its full potential.

"We're trying to turn that into some kind of creature. This is perfect because there's two roots that stick out at the bottom if you look close," Elijah said.

"It already looks like the dinosaur with the long neck coming out of the water, or a Loch Ness monster," he said.

That led the boys' parents to the internet. A quick Google search led the Chungs to chainsaw artist Chris Lantz of "Extreme Sculpting."

"He's a speed sculptor," the boys chimed. They say the tree should be transformed into some sort of creature.

"A dinosaur is a first time for me," Lantz said.

He took time out of his sculpting competition on the other side of the country to tell FOX 5 why he agreed to transform the stump.

"A lot of kids these days don't want to get outside," he said. "I was a Boy Scout and remember what it took and working hard."

Every good adventure has its challenge. And at just 11 and 12 years old, the boys have started to learn a thing or two about rules.

 "We did HOA and they said we couldn't do it," Malachi said.

"As soon as we offered 'well if we find a way to raise the funds would that be OK' they said absolutely," Mrs. Chung said.

"I told them if they paid a portion of the money, their father would match them and I would match that," Lantz said.

In two days, the boys raised more than $1400 for their Legacy Park trail. A typical Lantz carving could cost at least $1500.

In just a few weeks, when Lantz returns from his sculpting competition the curved chunk of wood will metamorphose into something from another world.

"If seeing a project like this encourages someone else to bring out their more creative side, we need that in the world," Mrs. Chung said.

Here's to seeing jungle in your backyard, the buried treasure in the pinecones, or the Loch Ness monster in an old tree-- no matter how seasoned or not you are.

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