East Cleveland, Ohio - a 2007 Playful City USA community - was featured in a multi-page article in Cities and Villages, the journal of the Ohio Municipal League.

Download the article here (reprinted with permission)

We've got lots of great new photos now available!

Brownsville, NY - Imagination Playground in a BOX Opening, 7/9/08
Houston, TX - Candlelight Oaks Civic Club (KOOL-AID), 7/9/08
Biloxi, MS - City of Biloxi (Mississippi Hurricane Recovery Fund), 6/28/08
Jacksonville, FL - Housing Partnership of Northeast Florida (WaMu), 6/28/08
San Antonio, TX - El Carmen Society for Community Advancement (USDA- 4H), 5/06/08

See all photo galleries.

Watch the Inside CNN podcast featuring Dr. Sanjay Gupta at a KaBOOM! playground build in New Orleans!

Learn more about the build.

Arson suspected in destruction of slides, ramps and climbing wall at Hailmann Elementary School.
Timothy O’Connor
Michigan City (Ind.) News-Dispatch
July 8, 2008

LA PORTE - A pile of new playground equipment melted to a school's parking lot pavement on Saturday afternoon after it caught fire due to as of yet unknown reasons. Arson is suspected.

The equipment, which included slides, a climbing wall and ramps, was sitting in the parking lot of Hailmann Elementary when neighbors noticed the fire around 3:45 p.m.

"Once it started burning it was quite a fire," said Robert Worthington, who reported the fire to police. "I did not see a soul anywhere in the vicinity."

Still, police suspect the fire was intentional.

Detective Clyde Crass said there was no firework activity in the area at the time and it was unlikely one of the celebratory explosives could have started the blaze. He added that the fire department found no traces of fireworks in the palettes of charred plastic equipment. [More]

Learn how to keep your new play equipment safe before the build.

My Suncoast News
July 8, 2008
 
MANATEE COUNTY - A new playground will be coming soon to the city of Bradenton, and it will definitely be kid-approved...since they're the ones designing it.

Nobody knows playgrounds better than kids, so it makes since that they help design a new playground to go in at Norma Lloyd Park, also known as 24th Street Park.  Tuesday was the playground design day, and if the kids have their way, the playground is going to be one of a kind. [More - including video]

Learn how to plan a Design Day

Architect David Rockwell, in Partnership with KaBOOM!, the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation and Local Officials Present an Expandable Collection of Imagination Playground’s Signature Loose Parts to Encourage Creative, Collaborative Kids’ Play

See photos from the event

On Wednesday, July 9, 2008 at 12pm, architect David Rockwell of Rockwell Group, New York City Department of Parks & Recreation Commissioner Adrian Benepe, KaBOOM! CEO and co-founder Darell Hammond, Brooklyn Councilman Charles Barron and other local dignitaries will unveil the first-ever Imagination Playground in a BOX – a new children’s play space at the Brownsville Recreation Center playground, located at Linden Boulevard between Mother Gaston Boulevard and Christopher Street in Brooklyn, NY.  Sixty children from the Brownsville Summer Camp will be on hand to see the introduction of their new play space and of course, to play!  This installation is funded by KaBOOM!, a national non-profit  dedicated to bringing play back into the lives of children, as part of their mission to ensure that every child has access to a great place to play within walking distance.  Councilman Barron has been working extensively to transform the Brownsville Recreational Center and its adjacent park into a vibrant, new area for neighborhood children.

“It’s so exciting to see the concept of creative play actually become a reality in New York,” said David Rockwell, founder and CEO of Rockwell Group.  We are incredibly grateful to KaBOOM!, the New York City Parks & Recreation Department, and Brownsville’s local officials for working with us to make these play opportunities available to the children in this community and beyond.”

Learn more about KaBOOM! and Imagination Playground.

Watch the entire episode of "House Call With Dr. Sanjay Gupta."
Watch a short teaser video on the build.
Read the blog.
Learn more.

We've changed the Forums! We have a new area to help you get started, learn what's new in the community, and an area where we will feature active members of the community.

We've also greatly reduced the number of Forum categories. For instance, the threads for the Playmaker Network and Playful City USA have now been combined. Also, nearly all of the Forums about building playspaces have been combined into two categories: building and fundraising. We've eliminated many of the categories that no one was visiting and we think it will easier for you to find useful conversations.

Finally, y ou can now search the Forums by thread, username, date, and by keywords. The search function is what we are calling a "beta" test. There may be some bugs and if you come across some, we would be very appreciative if you posted them in the Community Forum (along with any other questions and comments about the changes we've made too!) [More]

Okay... who broke the Internet?
Beginning next week on Wednesday, KaBOOM! HQ will be temporarily shutting down the Forums for what is commonly referred to in the Web world as "maintenance and optimization." The major change you will see is a streamlined number of categories for conversations. We will be taking paring our list of 19 categories down to seven.

We think this will improve your experience on the site and allow to find the information and inspiration you need for your playful projects.

If you have any other suggestions for other features you would like to on the Forums, feel free to post them in the "Website Support" thread (or you can email Jason at jcooper[at]kaboom.org).

Did you finish a project this month?
There were nearly 50 projects scheduled to finish in the month of June. Was your playground one of them?

Let the world know how it all turned out! Visit kaboom.org/projects, login, and on the right side of the page, you will see a link to your playspace projects. Under 'Actions' click 'Edit Project' and you will a screen similar to this:



Change the build date, the actual cost, the project's status (hopefully to "complete"), and when you're done, click 'Save'. It's an easy way to share your amazing news with the KaBOOM! community!

"A moment like this..."
Recently, Jason Cooper, your Online Community "best friend 4ever," shared a fun story about introducing KaBOOM! to a crowd full of techies at a conference. Jason, glory hound that he is, posted that moment on the Forums.

Have you had a moment like this, when people's ears perked up at the mention of your project? Share it in the Forums!

Enjoy these delicious and refreshing "Forums Classic" threads!
Alternative grass/playing surfaces
Purchasing Equipment - Discounts from Vendors?
I'm a new Playmaker - anyone else?