From Casey Clark, HFF Trustee
On June 20, 2007, thanks to the collaborative efforts of Build-A-Bear Workshop, KaBOOM! and The Homeless Families Foundation, over 250 community volunteers from all walks of life came together to build a dream playground for homeless children. Volunteers hand mixed cement, moved mountains of mulch in wheel barrels and tarps, planted plants, painted murals and built benches and no one complained about the heat, everyone just enjoyed the unique experience.  Every volunteer I have talked to said it was an incredible feeling, one they will never forget; it was spiritual. All of our children participated in some way and all were so proud to say they helped make this wonderful playground possible.

From Gale Hacker, HFF
On Monday morning, June 25th, the kindergarten, first and second graders used the playground for the first time.  The teachers were excited about how much fun the children had.  That afternoon, the classes went to Glenwood Pool for swimming, but the pool was closed and the teachers called me to see what they could do in place of swimming.  I suggested returning to the Dowd Center, setting up the hose and sprinkler in the playground area for the children to run through.   We never had the opportunity to do that before because we didn’t have a safe, enclosed place to do it.  Thank you for the playground and the playground area.

From the kids at HFF

Dear KaBOOM! and Build-a-Bear Workshop, 
Thank you for coming to the Dowd Center and building us a spectacular playground for us to play on and share our memories on.  I also love the basketball court the most because me and my friends are older and we don’t like playing on a playground.  I also want to tell the Build-a-Bear company and employees thank you for giving us free bears.  I will never forget that day.  Thank you. 

Sincerely,  

Hamid, age 13 

Dear KaBOOM! and Build-a-Bear, 
Hi, I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate you and your whole crew.  You did a great job on the playground.  I am grateful for your hard work and support for the Dowd Center.  The kids here really show their gratitude for what you have done. 

Also, thank you for the teddy bears because that’s the one I would cherish the most out of all of them.  It was a great party just having you there.  Oh yeah, the food was great. 

So I thank you greatly. 

Sincerely, 

Roneenya 

P.S.  I nicknamed my bear “Carmel Drop”.