We did it in 2007

California First Lady Maria Shriver will be on hand for the kickoff playground build in Los Angeles on March 19.

On March 29, legions of volunteers with gather to build nine other playgrounds in the following cities:

Volunteer!
We need your help — and the help of at least 2,999 other people — to make this happen! If you want to give children a great place to play, visit CaliforniaVolunteers.org to find out how to get involved.

When you picture your dream playground, what do you see? A castle? Lots and lots of slides? How about a big playhouse?

Children were asked to dream about and then draw their ideal playground Feb. 26 at the KaBOOM! Design Day for the Takoma Park, Md. location of CentroNía, a Washington, D.C.-based, multilingual, youth development nonprofit. Some children drew traditional playground equipment, while others let their imaginations run wild and included wildlife, a swimming pool, a spaceship, and a fire truck.

In a little over two months, some of those dreams will become reality when the old wooden play structure on site is removed and replaced with a brightly-colored, brand-new structure that will be built in just one day by 250 volunteers. Two hundred of those volunteers will come from the Comcast Corporation, who are also funding the creation of the new playground as part of their Comcast Cares Day May 3.

“We’re very excited to have the project done here,” said Rosalba Acosta, director of the Takoma Park location of CentroNía. “As you can see, it’s needed.”

A state bond commission enthusiastically supports play as a priority at a local school in this article.

Excerpt:

"We want to create outstanding learning environments and that includes providing facilities for exercise and sports," Rell said in a statement. "I am pleased that the state can help fund these improvements at Springdale Elementary School."

State Rep. Gerald Fox III, D-Stamford, who represents Springdale, said the money will give students a safe, state-of-the-art playground.

"It's a tremendous asset to the neighborhood and I'm very excited about it," Fox said in Rell's statement.

State Rep. James Shapiro, D-Stamford, said in the statement, "A philosopher once said that a sound mind in a sound body is a short but full description of a happy state in this world. I am extremely pleased to help Springdale students achieve that goal."

State Rep. Christel Truglia, D-Stamford, agreed.

"It is very important for our students to be able to excel inside and outside the classroom, but we need to give them the tools to do so," Truglia said in the statement.

Athletics and recreation "are just as crucial to the development of a child as the education that they will receive," said state Rep. Carlo Leone, D-Stamford. "I know that everyone involved in the eventual passage of this bond item recognizes its importance."

A story on National Public Radio on Feb. 22 discussed the evolution of play in the 20th century, and how that has impacted the cognitive development of children.

Excerpt:

Chudacoff's recently published history of child's play argues that for most of human history what children did when they played was roam in packs large or small, more or less unsupervised, and engage in freewheeling imaginative play. They were pirates and princesses, aristocrats and action heroes. Basically, says Chudacoff, they spent most of their time doing what looked like nothing much at all.

"They improvised play, whether it was in the outdoors… or whether it was on a street corner or somebody's back yard," Chudacoff says. "They improvised their own play; they regulated their play; they made up their own rules."

But during the second half of the 20th century, Chudacoff argues, play changed radically. Instead of spending their time in autonomous shifting make-believe, children were supplied with ever more specific toys for play and predetermined scripts. Essentially, instead of playing pirate with a tree branch they played Star Wars with a toy light saber. Chudacoff calls this the commercialization and co-optation of child's play — a trend which begins to shrink the size of children's imaginative space.

Read "Old Fasioned Play Builds Serious Skills."

Published Feb. 17, 2008

Excerpt:

"Discussions about play force us to reckon with our underlying ideas about childhood, sex differences, creativity and success. Do boys play differently than girls? Are children being damaged by staring at computer screens and video games? Are they missing something when fantasy play is populated with characters from Hollywood’s imagination and not their own? Most of these issues are too vast to be addressed by a single field of study (let alone a magazine article). But the growing science of play does have much to add to the conversation. Armed with research grounded in evolutionary biology and experimental neuroscience, some scientists have shown themselves eager — at times perhaps a little too eager — to promote a scientific argument for play. They have spent the past few decades learning how and why play evolved in animals, generating insights that can inform our understanding of its evolution in humans too. They are studying, from an evolutionary perspective, to what extent play is a luxury that can be dispensed with when there are too many other competing claims on the growing brain, and to what extent it is central to how that brain grows in the first place."

Read "Taking Play Seriously."

The U.S. Department of Education has released the 2008 Physical Education for Progress (PEP) Grant application. This program provides grants to initiate, expand, and improve physical education programs for K-12 students in order to help them make progress toward meeting state standards for physical education.

Funds may be used to provide equipment and support to enable students to participate actively in physical education activities. Funds also may support staff and teacher training and education.

Peaceful Playgrounds provides grant writing assistance for PEP Grants. They have supported numerous districts in the writing of successful PEP Grants over the past eight years.

by Ashley Wilson

ASHEVILLE – Seth Olson was always playing. As remembered by students, teachers and parents at Isaac Dickson Elementary, the 22-year-old kindergarten teacher had the heart and soul of a child, and he could frequently be seen traveling the school’s hallways with small children hanging from his limbs.

More than two years ago, Olson died suddenly in his sleep of a heart virus. The school community has since raised more than $75,000 to build Seth’s Playground at the school in his honor. Last weekend, 20 parents and teachers joined in the construction of the playground, which will be ready for children in about two weeks.

“I just think it’s fitting for someone who loved to play as much as he did,” said Susan Shillcock, Olson’s mom, who also teaches at Isaac Dickson Elementary. “The last time we were together at the school was playing on the kids’ playground.”

Complete with a climbing wall, swings, slide and large playing field, the new playground will finally give students in kindergarten through second grade their own place to play, instead of sharing space with the older kids.

GREENVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Cody McElrath staked out a spot to line up his miniature cars with two playmates, then exclaimed "let's ram them." Nearby, three girls played games or colored, looking up occasionally to watch an animated video.

The children showed no outward signs of the terror a few days earlier when tornadoes ravaged this area of western Kentucky. Instead, while their parents were busy reassembling their lives, the children were content playing inside a former school bus converted into a mobile playroom just for kids who have been through disasters.

"It's the simple things in life that keep kids busy and keep them happy," said Kathryn Martin, the driving force behind the goodwill bus. "And during times like this, parents are not able to, so why not come here and help and do a small part."

Martin's motivation to comfort kids in times of disaster sprang from her own tragedy. Her 2-year-old son, C.J., was among 25 people killed in 2005 by a tornado that struck the Evansville, Ind., area.

Now, the play area on wheels is known as "C.J.'s Bus." The outside of the bright yellow bus features pictures of C.J., smiling and giving a thumbs up sign.

Can you imagine collaborating with friends and neighbors to build your community a new place to play? Can you imagine a new playspace materializing in just one day?  If so, a KaBOOM! playspace project may be the perfect opportunity for you!

Thanks to the generosity of our many corporate partners, KaBOOM! has ongoing opportunities for community organizations to build a new playground or skatepark.

We are currently doing outreach to locate potential community partners in cities and towns across North America to create playspaces with KaBOOM! and our corporate partners in 2008. Ideal community partners are usually child-serving nonprofit organizations, but can be community development organizations, neighborhood coalitions, schools or any organization that can mobilize a volunteer force and is in need of a new placespace!

Check out the list of 2008 playground opportunity cities!

KaBOOM! and The Home Depot have once again partnered to offer $4500 grants to communities building playgrounds by April 15, 2008. Forty grants are available and will be awarded on a first come, first serve basis. All playgrounds must be built by April 15, 2008 and must follow the KaBOOM! Community-Build Model. Download the application form here.

Grantees awarded the grant must complete the following:

• Register their project in the KaBOOM! Project Planner as part of the application process
• Create a local project website within 30 days of receiving notification of the grant award, and update the local website through the course of the project 
• Create records for at least 10 playspaces in their community in the KaBOOM! Playspace Finder 
• Post at least three messages on the KaBOOM! Web Portal Online Forums 
• Register 5 Playmakers 
• Agree to complete a Vendor Rating System record on the KaBOOM! website upon completion of the project.

DEALE, MD - The Deale business community has rallied 'round to help Deale Elementary School get a new playground, but the playground committee still needs just $2,000 more to start the project.
A recent mass mailing to area business brought in a slew of donations, ranging from $50 to $1,000.

The students have already raised $14,000 on their own, including the last few thousand through an enthusiastic penny drive, but they are still $2,000 shy of the $16,000 needed to design, resurface and equip a badly needed new playground.

"The efforts of Deale children emptying out their piggybanks has yielded the same amount as the businesses so far," said Marianne Rude of the playground committee.

MISSOULA, MT - It's the ultimate childhood bummer: a great playground barricaded by a 6-foot-high chain-link fence.

“We like to bring our kid to play here,” parent Lance Fairbank said of the Westside Park playground next to Lowell Elementary School. “If kids are breaking their arms, there's no sense in having it open. But it sure is a teaser.”

Broken arms are the risk at the play fort's walkways, according to school and city officials. At least one child did just that last month after falling on a particularly slick ramp. After Lowell Principal Cindy Christensen contacted Missoula Parks and Recreation for advice, park superintendent Rob Thames investigated.
What he found was that in October, a volunteer crew sprayed the play fort with a wood preservative as part of regular annual maintenance. Some of the overspray got on the walkways, which are made of a composite wood-and-plastic material. Because the spraying took place late in the fall, the preservative didn't cure the way it usually does, Thames said. And the walkways took on a sort of varnish that made them extremely slippery.

“The volunteer group that did the spraying did a good job,” Thames said. “I think it's more a weather thing. We didn't have this situation last year, or at other playgrounds.”

RAVENNA, OH - One year ago, elementary school students in Ravenna met with an architectural firm and designed their ultimate dream playground.

That dream, nurtured by the non-profit organization, Friends of the Park, will soon be a reality with plans to open the playground June 16.

Beginning June 9, the park will be constructed in a seven-day building bonanza with the assistance of an all-volunteer community effort.

"It's the only park of its kind in Portage County," said Amy Michael, Friends of the Park co-founder. "It will bring people here."

Included in the plans for the playground, from the imaginations of elementary school children, are a castle, a play beauty shop and a bridge separating the two. Also slated for construction are a rock-climbing wall, a rocket ship, a hot-air balloon and play telephones.

The park is currently referred to as "Portage County Community-Built Playground," but naming rights will be offered to the donor who gives the largest donation.

With a projected price tag of more than $200,000, Michael said the project is a complete volunteer effort.
"We'll need 2,000 hands," she said. "This takes us back to the value of teamwork."

PASCAGOULA, MS -- Before Holley Cunningham cut the ribbon dedicating the new wheelchair-accessible swing at the Jackson County School for Exceptional Children, she rededicated herself, with the help of others, to do even more.

For her 14th birthday in December 2006, Cunningham, 15, of Pascagoula, began spearheading a project where a new playground would be built for the school, a $200,000 endeavor.

"This is a first step, a beginning for the wonderful children here at the Exceptional School ... and shows that exceptional children can have exceptional play," Cunningham said.

Principal Geraldine Miskel called the swing "one of the greatest things" the school has ever received.

Is your community in need of a playground? Do you know of an organization that is in need of a playground? Do you have dreams of helping design your own playground?

KaBOOM! might be able to help. There are a limited number of these oppotunities so we can't help everyone finanically, but if you are in one of the cities listed after the link we might be able to help you.

KaBOOM! brings together parents, community leaders and corporate partners to facilitate the group planning and design of new community playspaces. Our goal is to not only build a new playspace but also to use the project to strengthen existing support networks and to build new relationships within the community.  The approximate 10 week planning process kicks off with a Design Day where the children literally design their dream playgrounds, and culminates on Build Day where volunteers build the new playground in about six hours.  The day begins with an empty lot and ends with a new, colorful and safe playground for children and families alike to enjoy and congregate. 

Read more....