Community is the one word that sums up what KaBOOM! has meant to Leonard Flynn Elementary School, which is getting a playground March 31.  This project has excited the school community far beyond building a playground – the students are thrilled about the new play structure, the greening committee is anxious to help with the garden and landscaping, the teachers are happy to get some other projects done such as the long awaited four-square courts painted – but most of all parents, students, teachers and staff are humbled by the outpouring of good will and assistance from the surrounding community in the form of volunteers, tools and food donations, monetary donations, offers to tutor later as well as just excitement about this project.

Parents and students have also found new skills from working on the project – learning to solicit donations, using the values of Cesar Chavez to interpret the morals of stories, organizing friends to make large amounts of food to feed volunteers – all while making new connections with people in our community (thanks Youth Service California!) and strengthening existing relationships, people working side by side, no longer strangers, to achieve our goals.

-Beth Thew, Leonard Flynn Elementary School