A playground will open in the Fort Bayou area Saturday, and it offers relief to parents in the neighborhood of about 1,500 homes that never had many safe places for children to play.

Area children helped design the playground that will be built next to Ocean Springs Hospital thanks to a donation of time, equipment and labor from about 150 volunteer workers from KaBOOM!, AmeriCares and the city of Ocean Springs, according to a news release.

City Assistant Parks and Leisure Services Director Geri Straight said the playground is a big improvement to the area.

From The Mississippi Press:

Volunteers from the city, AmeriCares and KaBOOM! will build a new playground on Saturday in the Fort Bayou neighborhood.

The playground will be built in park space adjacent to the Ocean Springs Hospital, city leaders announced in a press release issued Sunday.

"We are thrilled to receive the generous donation from AmeriCares to fund a new KaBOOM! playground on the site donated to the city by the county," said Mayor Connie Moran. "Thanks to the involvement of the Ocean Springs Hospital and Jackson County, the Fort Bayou neighborhood of over 1,500 homes will have its first playground."

Remember when recess was the best part of the school day? Not any more. In some parts of the country, that carefree half-hour — when kids could run, jump, scream and play tag or other games — is on the endangered list.

Parks are popping up all over Jackson County thanks in part to KaBOOM!, a national organization dedicated to creating safe play spaces for children.

Shortly after Hurricane Katrina, KaBOOM! came to the Coast and made a commitment to build 100 playgrounds during the next two years. Already KaBOOM! is ahead of the curve, having completed 40 along the Coast. Four of those playgrounds are in Pascagoula and Moss Point and the organization recently held a design day with Gautier children and parents, the first step in building a new playground in Hickory Hill.

Perhaps one of the most amazing things about KaBOOM!'s approach to building playgrounds is how the organization involves the community from the design phase to the building phase.

New Orleans' City Park was once a lush Southern landscape of lazy lagoons, majestic ancient oaks draped with Spanish moss, and magnolias framing the fairways of three golf courses.

But the 1,300-acre park, one-third larger than New York's Central Park, is slowly coming back, with the help of volunteers, private donations from around the world and a major gift from New Orleans Saints star Reggie Bush.