 | Dr. Frank Kelly, M.D., an orthopedic surgeon, is no amateur to the playground scene. Through his involvement with KaBOOM!, he has been involved in everything from volunteer recruitment to fundraising to construction to safety. The following is our interview with Dr. Kelly.
Q: What inspired you to promote play and the creation of playspaces?
A: As an orthopedic surgeon, I know the importance of physical activity. I have played sports all of my life and know the many benefits to being active. For this generation, I am seeing an epidemic of juvenile obesity, which affects kids who eat too much and don’t exercise. It is one of my personal pet peeves and I have written several articles about it and all of the complications surrounding it.
Getting children away from their computers and video games and outside playing will help them burn calories, build relationships and foster those skills that they won’t get sitting in front of a screen.
Q: How did your journey of building a playground in Macon begin?
A: I actually met a KaBOOM! employee on a flight and learned about the idea of a community built playground then. In 2006, when I became president of the Medical Society, I encouraged the members to pursue this idea as a way to promote physical health in our community.
I then attended U Play!, the KaBOOM! annual training on community built playgrounds, in July 2006 and while there, by chance, met two ladies from the Junior League of Macon (Wendy Boston and Donna Jennings). Unbeknownst to me, the Junior League had also been considering a playground project and had been in preliminary discussions with NewTown Macon about building it at the newly designed Water Works Park. So...we started talking and decided it would make much more sense for us to combine forces and bring together the talents, capabilities, contacts, and energies of each group rather than embark upon separate projects. This proved to be a very wise decision; had we not joined forces, I cannot imagine that we would be on the cusp of building such a wonderful facility.
Q: How did you get the community involved in your efforts to build a playground?
A: When I returned from the U Play! training, we had several organizational meetings between the Medical Society and the representatives from the Junior League, we decided on our budget, we identified key personnel to help and also started working to identify individuals, businesses, and foundations within our community which we thought would be supportive of our project. A logo for our playground was designed, and we were off and running.
Our goal was to make this an all accessible playground and so engaging parents of children with differing disabilities was also a key ingredient. As we began to develop plans for this playspace we discovered that local children had to travel as far as Atlanta to play on all accessible playgrounds. So we promoted this playspace as a place for all kids to play, which created interest and buy in from parents and the community as a whole.
In order to help raise funds for this project, we held a brick sale which was a great way to get smaller donations. The bricks were for a walkway up to the playground and there were 300 bricks available at $50 a piece. It was a great for more members of the community to get involved.
We were given 188 acres of land with two miles of water running through it by NewTown Macon group for a Water Works Park. The vision was to make this a multigenerational playspace with the playground as the first phase.
This playground will not only be the largest playground in our community, but it will be centrally located and easily accessible from all areas. In addition, it will be a central feature of a larger park...a park which will offer numerous outdoor activities, including bike trails, hiking trails, fishing, and access to water sports, such as canoeing on the Ocmulgee River – the Water Works Park will include two miles of river frontage – an incredibly beautiful piece of property.
Q: What other initiatives have been taken by the Medical Society to promote play?
A: Our first goal was for the playground to be up and running, which we have accomplished. We will then begin adding other amenities in phases. We have made a commitment to help maintain our playground with the help of the Macon Junior League. And going forward would like to build other playgrounds in the area while promoting the importance of physical activity across the board. This was a tremendous team effort and through this experience, I worked with people that I may never have had the chance to work with.
Congratulations Frank on all the amazing work you are doing as a Playmaker! |