As we say at KaBOOM!, "it starts with a playground." Here are some of the amazing things that can happen after the cement dries.

Julio Salcedo, site director for Lytle Creek Park, in San Bernadino, Calif. shared with KaBOOM! the amazing ripple effects brought about by their playground build on March 29 as part of the Cesar Chavez Day of Service.

• The plots in the community garden created on Build Day have all been adopted by families, who have planted a variety of vegetables and fruit trees.
  
  
• The teenagers involved in the build have formed a community service club, and they take care of the plants around the center and are working on creating a walking path in the area.
  
  
• Attendance at the community center near the playground is off the charts! They used to feed lunch to 25 kids a day, and now they have to order 70 lunches each day for the kids. They used to serve 40 to 50 people visit on an average day, and now the numbers are closer to 120.
  
  
• Even more amazingly, the very first Lytle Creek Community Association meeting is scheduled to take place on May 21, and will include reps from the sheriff's department, code enforcement, health and human services, and animal services.

See photos from the Lytle Creek Park Build.
Learn more about the Cesar Chavez Day of Service.

What's been happening in the KaBOOM! online community?

Show us your play face!
In April, we asked you to post add the number of playgrounds you've helped build to your profile and many of you did! See the top builders on kaboom.org here.

This month, we want to see your "Play face"! Go to your profile page and upload a picture of yourself showing off the exhilaration that can only come from the joy of play. At the end of May, we'll post our favorites in the Forums. This is your chance to show off how fun and playful you can be.

Edit your profile now to show off your play face! 

New videos
We added some cool new videos, including our new public service announcements. Be the first one in your neighborhood to watch them!
 
Worst. Playground. Ever.
Think your playground is bad? Jackthecat found a picture of a playground that can really put things in perspective!

Delve into the Forum archives to find hidden gems!
Having just celebrated Earth Day, many people want to know how to make their Build Day a little more eco-friendly. Check out this thread from last year with lots of tips for keeping your waste down. Don't forget to post your own ideas!

Warning: Approaching deadline!
The deadline to turn in your Playful City USA application is looming! The manager of the KaBOOM! National campaign for Play has been answering your questions and posting best practices in the Playful City USA Forums. Playspace audit woes? Committee spreadsheet quandaries? Play Day mysteries? You have questions, the KaBOOM! community has answers.

ALBERTSONS Helps Children and Elite Athletes STEP BEYOND Gold(TM) in the Spirit of the Games

May 7 - Albertsons, a SUPERVALU company, announced today that they will be providing up to one million dollars to support the athletic dreams of our country's current and future athletes this summer. As part of the STEP BEYOND Gold(TM) program, Albertsons has identified four elite women's athletic teams -- USA Women's National Water Polo, USA Softball Women's National Team, U.S. Women's National Soccer Team and USA Women's National Volleyball Team -- to receive funding support. A portion of the funds raised will also support Southern California and Southern Nevada future athletes by providing access to physical activity opportunities through youth organizations including The Home Depot Center Charitable Foundation, HOPSports, LA Galaxy Foundation and KaBOOM!.

Between May 7 and August 24, 2008, every time an Albertsons shopper uses their Preferred Savings Card, Albertsons will donate a portion of their purchase to these teams and children's charities, up to one million dollars. And if the customer purchases a product from Albertsons' new organic and natural line, Wild Harvest, Albertsons will double that donation. Albertsons created the STEP BEYOND Gold(TM) program as a way to engage its customers in the excitement of the upcoming summer games and enable them to be able to directly support the country's top female athletes and our athletes of tomorrow. Albertsons customers also win by receiving a 5% Savings Award every time they accumulate $250 in spending with their Preferred Savings Card, through July 4.

...

Read the full article

Volunteers at CentroNìa Playground Build

As part of Comcast Cares Day, over 186 volunteers, mostly Comcast employees, turned out Saturday to build a playground at the Takoma Park, Md. location of CentroNìa, a Washington, D.C.-based, multilingual, youth development nonprofit. The volunteers sweated in the warm, sunny weather as they mixed 14,000 lbs. of concrete by hand and moved 170 cubic yards of mulch on tarps from the parking lot to the playspace.

Carmien Ray, technical operations supervisor at Comcast, took on the mantle of Mulch Queen for the day, wearing a crown and guiding volunteers to where they needed to place the mulch. “It’s fun!” she said, grinning. “But it’s not for the faint of heart. You’ve got to have endurance to work the mulch!”

CentroNìa Playground - before

The playspace, built in just five hours, includes not only two big play structures, but also several picnic tables, a shade structure, benches, trees, and a large mural and tricycle path.

Lisa Miller, development associate at CentroNìa, knows this project will have long-term implications for the kids served there – and their parents. “It shows the kids that they’re valued,” she said. “Comcast has made an investment in them, and therefore in the community."

See more photos from the build

Read about the Design Day

Do the kids in your community need great places to play?  If your answer is YES, then sign up for one of our FREE Workshops Entirely on Play (WE Play!). 

At select WE Play! events sponsored by Kool-Aid, (Atlanta, Los Angeles, Houston and Cleveland), applications will be available for five $7,500 grants toward building a playground in their community!  Only WE Play! attendees are eligible to apply.

At WE Play!, you’ll learn how to plan, fund, and complete a community-build playground project AND advocate for more play in your community. 

With the generous support of our partners Kool-Aid and The Home Depot, we've got FREE trainings scheduled across the country including Charlotte (May 13), Chicago (May 16) Los Angeles (June 5), Houston (July 10) and New Orleans (July 25) in the coming months. Get started on the path toward building a great playground today!

Cherokee volunteers make KaBOOM! history
Monday, April 28, 2008
By SUSAN STACHOWSKI
Mississippi Press

PASCAGOULA -- More than 300 volunteers showed up on the campus of Cherokee Elementary Friday morning to build the Ka-BOOM! playground, and the 8-hour workday was cut in half.

As the sun rose over the campus, activity had already begun with volunteers digging holes, moving mulch and building benches.

Justin Fitzgerald, Ka-BOOM! project manager, was amazed with the volunteer turnout and energy.

"This turnout is just amazing and so is the energy being displayed," Fitzgerald said. "I just had 145 cubic yards of mulch moved in less than an hour. That never happens. We are better than on schedule."

...

Working alongside Fitzgerald was Sarah Pinsky, director of Operation Playground. She agreed with Fitzgerald saying that even early in the morning, this was one of the fastest builds ever.

"It's not just the number of volunteers who came out today, but how hard everybody is working," Pinsky said. "We have had a lot of people come out for builds before but never to move as quickly as these are doing."

...

Read the full article
Learn more about Operation Playground

A place to play
By Matt Sloane
CNN
May 2, 2008

I had one of the most rewarding experiences of my CNN career Wednesday, and it involved 40 children, about as many parents and some homemade jambalaya at a senior center in Louisiana.

“It starts with a playground” is the slogan for KaBOOM, a national non-profit organization that builds playgrounds. KaBOOM is our newest partner in the fight against childhood obesity. For those 40 kids, and even the parents in the room, it really does all start with a playground.

...

That’s where CNN Fit Nation comes in. For us, it started with a phone call to KaBOOM, and six months later I found myself sitting at this senior center, watching the kids draw their dream playground with crayons. From those drawings, the parents and I sat with KaBOOM staffers and picked the playground equipment that best fit the kids’ drawings. Two months from now on June 28, we’ll all meet in Metairie to build it, in a shade under 6 hours.

As the parents and adults thanked me for CNN’s contribution to their community, I asked all of them for something in return - to use this new playground and to get their children moving and to teach them how to stay healthy well into adulthood.

...

Read the full article
Learn more about our work combatting childhood obesity
Learn more about Operation Playground

An Invitation to Child’s Play: Big Blocks and Wheelbarrows
By DIANE CARDWELL
Published: May 4, 2008
New York Times

It is the playground of the future, already in beta mode in New York City and coming soon to empty lots, day care centers and even suburban backyards across the country.

Instead of monkey bars and jungle gyms, there are blue and white blocks to stack into high walls or to connect as sluices and walkways.

In place of swing sets and seesaws, there are wheelbarrows and rolling carts to move materials about.

And while there are still the familiar elements of sand and water, they are no longer there to be shoveled and splashed so much as turned into landscapes of fanciful design.

The idea began with the architect David Rockwell’s desire to create a more engaging play space for his children — and others — on a parking lot near the South Street Seaport in Lower Manhattan. Construction of that playground is to begin in July. But the concept has expanded to include portable collections of Mr. Rockwell’s play gear that can be used in playgrounds around the city, starting with one in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn this summer.

Next, Mr. Rockwell plans to bring his novel approach to cities around the nation through a partnership with the nonprofit playground developer Kaboom.

“Play is on the decline in the United States, and frankly, kids’ creativity is on the decline in the United States,” said Darell Hammond, the founder of Kaboom, which is working with Mr. Rockwell to manufacture and distribute the custom-designed loose parts, which experts say encourage more imaginative, child-directed play than fixed structures do. “We’re betting our future on this concept, that this concept is going to — in generations or decades — make better kids.”

...

Read the full article
Learn more about our partnership with the Rockwell Group and Imagination Playground!

FROM:  Rockwell Group

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ARCHITECT DAVID ROCKWELL & KaBOOM! COLLABORATE ON NEW GENERATION OF “FREE PLAY” SPACES TO BE BUILT ACROSS THE U.S.

Anticipate Over 1,000 Imagination Playgrounds Across the Country Within Five Years

Partnership to Encourage Play and Creativity – First “Playground in a Box” to be Installed In Brownsville, Brooklyn

May 5, 2008 (New York, NY) – Architect David Rockwell of Rockwell Group and KaBOOM!, the foremost national not for profit dedicated to bringing play back into the lives of children, today announced a partnership to develop and implement a new generation of playspaces across the United States, based on the play value concepts of Imagination Playground, the Rockwell Group’s design for a playground in lower Manhattan. 

The Rockwell Group created Imagination Playground, which will break ground this summer, to embody the concept of unstructured, child directed “free play,” where children direct their own activities, alone and with their peers.  The Rockwell Group has worked closely with the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation on the initiative.

“We have always hoped to make the Imagination Playground concept available to communities nationwide,” said David Rockwell, founder and CEO of Rockwell Group.  “We could not be more thankful to KaBOOM! for helping make that dream a reality.”

KaBOOM! has spent 12 years building playspaces using a community build model, where they partner with corporations, foundations and private donors.  Creating opportunities and tools for building playgrounds, KaBOOM! will extend their play platform by incorporating the Imagination Playground model into an expandable collection of its trademark parts to supplement existing playgrounds and form the basis for new playspaces. 

"KaBOOM! believes that play is a matter of national importance.  We can't wait to bring some of the most innovative, yet old-fashioned concepts in play back to children across the country.  By adding sand, water, loose parts, and play associates to what KaBOOM! already offers, we're going to revolutionize your neighborhood playground," said Darell Hammond, co-founder and CEO of KaBOOM!

By Darell Hammond
KaBOOM! CEO and Co-Founder

When we started KaBOOM! in 1995, I could never have imagined that we’d be partnering with CaliforniaVolunteers for the second year in a row to create ten amazing playspaces throughout the State of California in honor of César Chávez.  I am so honored to be a part of this program.  It holds a special significance to me because it serves to unite communities and stress the importance of service by highlighting the values of one of the nation’s foremost leaders in civil rights.

“Sí se puede,” or, “Yes, it can be done” are the words that Chávez used to fuel the passion of his fight, promoting idealism, hope and a strong belief in equality for all.  This message of empowerment was carried throughout each build, instilling in volunteers a drive to strengthen their community by working together to build a great new place for local youth to play. 

We kicked off the program at the Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust with 340 eager volunteers ready to build one of the largest playground projects that KaBOOM! has ever led.  This was a tremendous kick-off to a program that produced nine playgrounds and one skatepark, requiring 136 tons of concrete, 2,290 cubic yards of Engineered Wood Fiber and 109 gallons of paint!

Here at KaBOOM! we say that it only take a single spark to start a fire.  At each build this ethos was brought to life with the traditional United Farm Workers’ clap – a tradition started to demonstrate solidarity and unity.  Slow and singular claps quickened, growing louder as more claps joined in unison, soon becoming a roar that motivated crowds of volunteers, providing them with a great momentum to push them through the day. 

As Linscott Charter School parent, Karen Lowell, noted, “the soul of the day wasn’t in the building details; it was in the people.”  Throughout the program, KaBOOM! was joined by 11 Chavez Family members, 15 California Volunteers Build Captains and 3,542 volunteers – an astounding turnout! 

The 2008 KaBOOM! César Chávez Playground Build program proved to be a monumental homage to a great leader, as well as a moving example of how KaBOOM! helps strengthen communities by empowering them to build playgrounds. 

Thanks again to First Lady Maria Shriver whose incredible dedication to this program truly reflected her vision and commitment to service.  Special thanks to all who joined us to donate their sweat, passion and laughter to a great program we hope to continue for many years to come.   

Sí se puede!

Learn more about the Cesar Chavez Day of Service