By project manager Nate Rosenthal, KaBOOM! project manager

“Let me get this straight,” exclaims the passenger sitting next to me on my flight to a February 2 Design Day in Mecca, California – a small unincorporated town of 5,400 farm workers, just southeast of Palm Springs. “KaBOOM! is going to build an entire playspace in just one day?!”

I chuckle at his sense of amazement and fill him in on some additional amazing facts: “Actually, on March 30 and 31, KaBOOM! is facilitating 10 community-built playspaces with the help of CaliforniaVolunteers, Youth Service California, and local communities all across California in an effort to celebrate and commemorate one of the most influential people in both California and United States history – Cesar E. Chavez!”

At this point, you can imagine the look of disbelief on this man’s face. In fact, it’s probably similar to the one that you have on your face right now. As my airplane companion began to pull himself together, the first thing he managed to say was “WOW!” followed by, “What’s a Design Day?”  Well, I’m sure you’re interested too…

In early February, 10 KaBOOM! project managers, including yours truly, traveled from their home offices all around the country to 10 California communities, where we met with scores of children – the play experts – in order to find out what they wanted their custom-designed playgrounds to look and feel like. We encouraged them to put their ideas on paper, we spoke with them about Cesar Chavez and how his 10 core values play a role in their lives, and, most importantly, we provided the children with an opportunity to stop and think about how they could include Chavez’s values in their everyday lives to an even greater extent. What are the 10 core values, you ask?

• Service to others
• Sacrifice
• A Preference to help the most needy
• Determination
• Non-violence
• Acceptance of ALL people
• Respect for life
• Celebrating community
• Knowledge
• Innovation

It was incredible to see the children’s eyes light up as they realized ways in which they live out each of these values on a daily basis. It was equally exciting to see their imaginations at work as they designed their dream playgrounds. As the children stacked up their drawings and said the magic word (KaBOOM!) – which transplants their dreams into the minds of the adults so that the adults can make well informed playspace decisions – there was a sense of excitement, accomplishment and hope for the playground and community-building to come. These feelings will continue up to and beyond Build Day, as the local schools have also implemented a Cesar E. Chavez service-learning curriculum, which emphasizes the 10 core values and allows the children to think in greater depth about the ideas discussed at Design Day.

From a project management perspective, building in an area with a tradition steeped in decades of community organizing is a dream come true. Community involvement has been extraordinary. On my project alone, we have 30 parents, teachers, and community members committed to helping the children and paying homage to Cesar Chavez. They've showed up every Friday at 7 p.m. for a town-hall style meeting to discuss the project. Some of them come to the meeting straight from working the fields since 4 a.m.!

After seeing all of this, it becomes quite clear that not only are we building these playspaces to commemorate the legacy of Cesar E. Chavez, we are building these playspaces with the legacy he left behind. How? By working closely with his grandchildren, with comrades who marched beside him, and with the children and families who live under better conditions today because of the hard work and core values that Cesar Chavez – and those who joined the cause he started – practiced day in and day out and instilled in the communities in which they live(d).

CaliforniaVolunteers and Youth Service California also have really stepped up. They are doing far more than just throwing money at a good cause. They are fully invested in the projects – attending the Design Days, taking part in hour-long weekly planning calls, volunteering their time on Build Week, and working with the KaBOOM! project management staff and communities all over California every day for the past month (and continued to do so all through March).  All this in an effort to build playspaces and community, and most importantly, to instill in everyone the 10 core values which honor Cesar Chavez’s legacy.

My newly acquired friend on the airplane gained a great appreciation for Cesar Chavez and the daily struggles of farm workers on that day, and I hope that you have as well. Don’t stop here. Educate yourself on Chavez’s life work and sacrifices. Spread his words and values, and live them out in your everyday life, because, in the words of Cesar E. Chavez: “The end of all education should surely be service to others.”