By DANI SCHWEIGERT
Lake County (Ill.) Journals

ROUND LAKE – Get ready, Round Lake Area. A new place to play is coming your way.

Discover Financial Services and KaBOOM!, a national nonprofit organization that helps communities build playgrounds, have teamed up with the Round Lake Area Park District to build a playground and skate park at the park district’s Community Center.

“It’s going to add to the function, operation and amenities of the park district and the community center,” said Jeff Nehila, executive director of the park district. [More]

Want to build a playground in your neighborhood? We've got all the tools you need!

Partnership with KaBOOM!, WaMu bringing new play area to child development center on Compton Boulevard
By Allison Jean Eaton
Compton (Calif.) Bulletin
June 25, 2008

COMPTON – From your typical slide and swing set to more imaginative requests like a tree house, tunnel and “choo-choo train,” toddlers and pre-school age children who spend their days at the child development center at the YWCA offered up requests for their up-and-coming new playground.

Nonprofit KaBOOM! and Washington Mutual (WaMu) have teamed to make the new playground a reality. The two organizations hosted a design day Tuesday, June 17 at the YWCA of Greater Los Angeles’ Compton Boulevard location. [More]

Learn how to plan a Design Day

CNN and KaBOOM! are teaming up to build a playground in New Orleans this Saturday. Here's how you can be a part of the action!

• See photos from the Design Day
• See photos from the Build Day (coming June 30)
• Discuss this playground build in the Forums
• Watch CNN.com/health for their coverage of the day.

If you're planning on building a playspace, you can't go wrong with the KaBOOM! Project Planner. It's a great way to track volunteers and funding for your project, and it puts your project in our searchable database so funders and volunteers can find you!

Based on registered projects, here's who's been building (and is planning to build) in the month of June. Send happy thoughts their way! (Click the "Read more" button for the list!)

WPBT (PBS)

When we launched our web portal, uVu, last year, we expected the project to become a source for stories by and about the community, but always with the hope that we could connect with people in a physical space as well. Late last week we had another opportunity to do that and you can watch the video here.

In Plantation, there was a small park on Fig Tree Lane, damaged by Hurricane Wilma, that had fallen almost completely into disrepair. But thanks to some impressive partners and a lot of community "sweat equity" a new park was erected on the site. Despite the threat of rain and an early morning string of thunderstorms, volunteers turned out (and returned) to put this park together in a single day. A partnership between KaBOOM, which is a non-profit organization dedicated to building parks across the country, the Massey-Yardley Dealership, the City of Plantation officials and dozens of Plantation neighbors helped raise the new playground. [More]

Learn more about KaBOOM! Funding Partners.
 

Parents, clubs, businesses provide money for school facility in poor neighborhood
By Cathy Spaulding
Muskogee (Okla.) Daily Phoenix
June 21, 2008

Sixth-grader Kayla Royse said she didn’t have a decent playground set for all the years she spent at Irving Elementary School.

“I just walk around and be bored during recess,” she said. “I didn’t think I could ever get to see a playground set that was fun.”

When Kayla and other Irving students come back to school this August, they’ll have a new set — yellow and Rougher green, complete with humpy slides, towers and spiral ladders.

Irving school administrators and Parent Teacher Organization members said hard work and good fortune helped them raise the thousands of dollars to buy and put up the playground set.

Irving, however, faced an extra challenge because of its high poverty rate, Irving principal Dr. Pam Bradley said. In 2007, 87 percent of Irving students were on free or reduced lunch. Tony Goetz Elementary, where Bradley used to be principal, had a 60 percent of its students on free or reduced lunch. The district average was 75 percent on free and reduced lunch; the state average, 56 percent. [More]

Check out the KaBOOM! one-stop fundraising shop for all kinds of fundraising resources!

By Nick Hytrek, Sioux City (Iowa) Journal
June 23, 2008

HUBBARD, Neb. -- When they began raising money to replace old playground equipment in their town's park, members of the newly formed Hubbard Betterment Committee had a simple goal: Out with the old, in with the new.

It seemed like a straightforward task. Raise enough money to get new, safe equipment to replace old metal swings, a merry-go-round that had rusty bolts sticking up out of it and a slide that long ago had stopped meeting modern safety standards.

But in the months that followed since they began meeting in late 2006, committee members noticed something else happening. They weren't just updating an old playground, they were replacing old attitudes.

Hubbard residents, both old and new, were opening up more than their checkbooks. They were opening their eyes to the possibilities for their town. They were asking how they, too, could help. They were thinking of other ways to improve their community of 234 people. [More]

Learn how to organize your community to build a playground

A photo from the ribbon-cutting at the 100th Operation Playground build appeared on a huge electronic billboard in Times Square in New York City between 10 and 11 a.m. Eastern time on June 16! Here's what it looked like:

The 100th build from Operation Playground was featured on "Good Morning America" today!

Watch the segment here.

Learn more about Operation Playground.

Check out photos from the build!

More than 500 volunteers converged on Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Park in Bay St. Louis on Saturday to help KaBOOM! and our partners complete the 100th Operation Playground project in the Gulf Coast. In December 2005, KaBOOM! committed to build 100 playgrounds in the region after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated the Gulf Coast, starting with the first in Bay St. Louis. It was only fitting that the 100th playground was built in the town where it all began. 

The 100th build was a true community celebration. Not even a midday shower could dampen the enthusiasm of the volunteers from the local community, Fannie Mae, AmeriCorps*NCCC, Gulf Coast Recovery Corps, Keesler Air Force base, and others, many of whom had participated in several previous Operation Playground projects. In just under six hours, the volunteers completed two playground structures, refurbished two basketball courts, and built an extensive new ‘front porch’ entrance to the park. They also painted several murals commemorating Dr. Martin Luther King, the community and Operation Playground. As a finishing touch, local children created a ‘Heroes Walk’ around the park honoring the men and women of the Civil Rights movement. 

The project was made possible by a partnership between KaBOOM!, the Mississippi Hurricane Recovery Fund, the Gulf Coast Community Foundation, Fannie Mae, Foundation for the Mid South, the City of Bay St. Louis, Hancock Housing Resource Center and Powerhouse of Deliverance Church. At 2:30, representatives from each of the organizations, along with the volunteers and past Operation Playground Community Partners, gathered to cut a very special ribbon made up of 100 painted panels representing each of the 100 Operation Playground projects.    

Because of Operation Playground, more than 22,000 volunteers have donated their time to build playgrounds for nearly 50,000 children from Houston to Mobile.  In all, through Operation Playground, $8.2 million has been invested to build great new places to play in the Gulf Coast by Jim and Donna Barksdale, The Home Depot, Playworld Systems, Fannie Mae, Mississippi Hurricane Recovery Fund, the Gulf Coast Community Foundation, NBA Cares, DJR Foundation, AmeriCares, ESPN, ING Direct and other outstanding partners. 

KaBOOM! will continue to build in the region and already has several projects scheduled through December. The 101st and 102nd Operation Playground projects will take place in New Orleans and Biloxi on Saturday, June 28. Volunteer for one of these projects.

Comment on this story

WHP CBS 21, Harrisburg, Pa.

Hundreds of people joined forces Thursday in Steelton to build a new playground in just one day. It was part of a project put together by the Steelton-Highspire School District, Home Depot and KaBOOM!. Watch the video!

Learn more about community partner builds.

Kristin Thebaud
Ventura County Star
June 10, 2008

OXNARD, Calif.- Volunteers mixed more than nine and a half tons of concrete by hand and assembled more than 4,675 pounds of equipment to build a playground in one day at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Oxnard and Port Hueneme's Martin V. Smith Branch on 5th Street in Oxnard on Saturday. Volunteers from the Amgen Foundation and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Oxnard and Port Hueneme, organizers from KaBOOM! and residents of the Oxnard community joined forces to build a new, safe playground based on drawings provided by children who attended a Design Day event in April.

"Every child deserves a safe place to play," said Nancy Mayerson, board president of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Oxnard and Port Hueneme. "We are grateful to KaBOOM! and the Amgen Foundation for recognizing the importance of this new playground for thousands of Oxnard children."

The new playground will provide more than 3,000 children in the community with a safe place to play each year. The play space is the first of two that will be built by KaBOOM! and the Amgen Foundation this year, and one of more than 225 KaBOOM! will lead across the country in 2008 in an effort to provide a great place to play within walking distance of every child in America. [More]

How can you build a playground your community? Get started here.

Make your playspace dreams come true with the help of our webinars! From ideas for promoting play in your community to fundraising to working with the media, we've got you covered.

We've just announced some great new (free!) webinars. All you need is a phone and an Internet connection to participate!

Webinar topics for this summer include:

• Revitalizing Playspaces, Becoming Part of the Urban Parks Movement
• FUNdraising 101
• Becoming a KaBOOM! Community Partner
• Making the Ask: Getting Business Sponsorships
• EXTRA! EXTRA! Read All About It! Working with the Media during Your Playground Project
• Grant Writing 101

Register today!

Check out the KOOL-AID photo gallery to see great photos from four playspace builds in the Los Angeles area last week!

LA Teen Challenge
Boys & Girls Club of Carson
HCA/Longhorn Pavillion
Los Cerritos YMCA

Learn more about the partnership

It's been a difficult year for Jacob Asher.

The 4-year-old was critically injured last April in a two-car accident that killed his mother and two brothers.

He broke his jaw in two places, broke his legs and fractured his neck.

But Jacob fought through his physical injuries, and a Waukee-based organization has built Jacob a new play space in the backyard of his Earlham house so he can get outside and play again.

Project Dream Space unveiled the 3,000-square-foot play area to Jacob and his father Eric on Sunday afternoon.

The play area features a sandbox, a two-story clubhouse and a memorial garden dedicated to his mother and brothers.

Jacob went straight for the sandbox, his father said.

"He was really excited, he really was -- he was really surprised," Eric Asher said. [More]

Learn how to organize volunteers to build a playground near you

Last Saturday, in 95˚ heat, KaBOOM! had its 99th build in the Gulf Coast -- and a Build Day wedding! -- at Life Academy, a preschool program of the Resurrection of Life Church in Picayune, Miss.

Volunteers kept busy assembling the play structure, rock blocks, slither slide, adventure bridge, and Freddy Firetruck, plus shade structures, butcher block benches and picnic tables...until 10 a.m., when everyone was told to put down their tools because it was time to go to the wedding being held on the build site!

The ceremony took place about 50 yards from the playground. The bride and groom, Chris Utter and Roxie Zortman, were joined by friends, family, and all 130 build volunteers, the vast majority of whom were members of the church. When the attendees realized there wasn’t music, they all hummed ‘Here Comes the Bride’ as the bride walked down the makeshift aisle. 

Despite the unusual circumstances, Brother Allen performed a very moving and deeply spiritual ceremony. The bride and groom both shed tears of joy before finally sharing their first kiss as husband and wife. Immediately after the wedding, it was time to get back to work. The groom quickly changed and hit the mulch pile, while his bride regretfully left to spend time with family in for the weekend.

It was quite a day! And this coming Saturday, we'll be celebrating the 100th KaBOOM! Operation Playground build in the Gulf Coast. Learn more.

On May 24th, 2008 more than 400 people joined together as a community to build a safe, innovative and beautiful park for children in San Pancho, Mexico. This project, known as RECICLA PARQUE (Recycled Park), relied on KaBOOM! tools, such as the online Toolkit, while creating an innovative, green playspace.

One of the principles of the RECICLA PARQUE project was to use recycled materials in the construction of the park and to teach sustainable building techniques. Groups of volunteers built walls from glass bottles, walls that used plastic bottles filled with sand as “bricks,” and benches from sacks filled with dirt and covered with a mixture of concrete and paper, a technique known as “papercrete” and experimental in the San Pancho climate. They sanded and painted old CFE spools to use as tables, refurbished found iron works to use as doors on the kids' area, and cut tires to use for swingsets and other play equipment.

Build Day was an amazing example of a community in action. Parents, teachers, kids, business owners, passers-by, San Pancho residents and groups and organizations from Bucerias, Sayulita, Guadalajara, Punta de Mita, Colorado and California joined together to create a park for the children of San Pancho in an action of solidarity and goodwill that left the organizers "thankful, inspired and awed." [More]
 
Check out the KaBOOM! Toolkit.

Check out these videos from the Home Depot/KaBOOM! build in Milwaukee June 5.

CBS 58

My Fox Milwaukee

Vikings pitch in on playground
Players, staff do a day's work at north Minneapolis school

By Sean Jensen
St. Paul Pioneer Press
June 5, 2008

Eric Mahmoud figured he was being Punk'd.

The co-founder of Seed Academy / Harvest Prep School in north Minneapolis, Mahmoud received a call from Brad Madson a few months ago.

The Vikings' executive director of community relations informed Mahmoud that his charter school had been selected to receive a new playground, courtesy of the club, KaBOOM! and Toro.

"We had an old, unsafe playground, and we've been trying to raise money for it," said Mahmoud, who founded Seed Academy as a 10-child day care with his wife, Ella, in 1985. "Then I got a call out of the blue from Brad Madson.

"I thought it was a joke."

That wasn't all. The three companies sought the students' input, and they combined forces to build the playground in a single day.

"It's a dream come true," Mahmoud said. "It's not just writing a check. This is phenomenal." [More]

Learn more about KaBOOM! partnerships with professional sports teams.

Building a playground in a day in Fountain Heights
By ANNE RUISI
Birmingham (Ala.) News
June 04, 2008

More than 200 volunteers are expected Saturday to build a dream playground in one day in Fountain Heights.

"It gone from being a wish, to a dream to a reality," said Doris Powell, president of the Fountain Heights Neighborhood.

Construction will start at 8:30 a.m. and be completed by the 2:30 p.m. ribbon-cutting and dedication ceremony. Volunteers are welcome to join the effort Saturday morning.

The long-awaited, 2,500-square-foot KaBOOM! playground will be built at the Fountain Heights Recreation Center, 1101 15th Ave. North. Its design is based on drawings provided by children who attended a design day event in April.

Swings, slides and a rock climbing panel are some of the features that will be in the new playground.

The project is a joint effort of OPUS Corp., which built the new Social Security Administration building in the neighborhood, KaBoom!, and the Fountain Heights Community Development Corp. [More]

Learn how to build a playground from start to finish with the KaBOOM! Online Toolkit!

Playground will be built in single day
Boys & Girls Clubs do own version of 'Extreme Makeover: Home'

By Joanne Cunha
Ventura County (Calif.) Star
June 4, 2008

The Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Oxnard and Port Hueneme will hold a version of the "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" TV show by building a new playground in one day — Saturday — at Southwest Park in Oxnard.

The Amgen Foundation has provided a $62,500 grant for the project, with $7,500 provided by the Boys & Girls Clubs.

"It's really a dream come true," said Tim Blaylock, spokesman for the clubs. "We don't have a playground with play structures. Twenty kids actually helped design the project with KaBOOM.

"They've been doing this model for a long time. It's based on trying to get a community to rally around a project and people taking pride in it." [More]

Learn more about KaBOOM! Community Partner Builds

Playground stands in honor of Connor Simonson
By Shino Omura
Lancaster (Pa.) Eagle Gazette
May 20, 2008

BALTIMORE - For years, Kathy Simonson watched her son Connor Simonson kick a soccer ball, hit a baseball and laugh with his friends at Alt Park in Baltimore.

At age 10, Connor passed away in November 2006 after being diagnosed with Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia.

The disease is a type of blood cancer and is the most common type of leukemia in children under the age of 15, according to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

The memories of Connor will now serve as a foundation for the rest of the community to make new memories of their own.

With his family's consent and support, a playground was built in memory of Connor inside Alt Park.

The public will be able to see and enjoy the playground equipment following the dedication ceremony for Connor Simonson Memorial Playground on Sunday.

Read the full article

A local woman is focusing her energy on something positive in the wake of her father’s unexpected death last month.

While Mandee Brown is mourning the loss of her father, Jimmy Gudroe, who was Dexter’s fire chief, she also is working to refurbish a community playground in his memory.

"My dad loved kids. He never missed a fire prevention week," Brown said Thursday. So it seemed only fitting to Brown that she enlist some help and work to raise money to replace the Dexter Community Playground equipment on Crosby Street with a firetruck and other assorted playground equipment. Her goal would be to have the playground renamed the Jimmy Gudroe Memorial Playground.

Brown met with the Dexter Town Council earlier this month to announce the project.

Gudroe had previously served with the Garland Fire Department for five years before he joined the Dexter Fire Department, where he served for 16 years, the latter two as chief.

School gets first playground
By Ken Sugiura
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
May 10, 2008
 
Where once an empty lot largely went unused, a playground sprang to life Friday. Here, the frame of a swing set, lying on its side. There, a curlicue slide, one piece of an apparatus that included more slides, a ladder and a small climbing wall.

Second-grader Gabrielle Gould watched it all with approval.

"It's tight," she said.

More than 200 volunteers built a playground for Gabrielle and her Cleveland Avenue Elementary School schoolmates. Veteran teachers said it's the first at this 58-year-old Atlanta school, where 95 percent of the students qualify for free or reduced-cost lunch.

"We're really, really looking forward to this," said Lillian Jackson, an instructional specialist who has taught at the school for 23 years. "It's wonderful for the children."

...

Read the full article

Discuss your build experiences in the Forums!

Once shuttered city playground now getting upgrade

BY MIKE FAHER

Just one year ago, the gates of Johnstown’s controversial skateboard park were locked.

Now, the Fairfield Avenue facility’s future looks bright due to the efforts of a volunteer organization.

Members of the West End Improvement Group on Monday kicked off improvements designed to transform the park into a greener, more user-friendly space for kids and nearby residents.

And they noted that more cash is needed to make those plans a reality.

...

Read the full article
Discuss playspace maintenance and renovation in our Forums

Check out the new "Community Involvement" section of the KaBOOM! online Toolkit, where you can learn how to find great resources in your community for volunteers, fundraising, tool donation, and more!

"Community Involvement" complements all the other Toolkit sections by guiding you through the Asset-Based Community Development process, which helps you and your planning team identify people, associations, institutions and businesses in your community that can help with your playground project.

Share your wisdom with others! If your team comes up with a great idea for an individual, association, business or institution that can help with your playspace project, you can add it to the "Community Involvement" lists of individuals, associations, businesses and institutions to seek out. Each of these sections of the Toolkit can be edited or added to by anyone!

Read the "Community Involvement" section of the online Toolkit.

Karen Lowell
Linscott Charter School Parent and PR Committee Chairperson

I started to write about the structures we built and the details of the day. But the soul of the day wasn’t in the building details; it was in the people. The scurrying masses flew to work as a jovial mob, moving tools, setting out the playground components, arranging food and water, and otherwise setting up the material proof that we were really going to build a playground by 2:30 p.m.  

All day long people I knew and people I didn’t know were slapping high fives and hugging me in giddy delight. Mothers embarrassed children as they salsa-danced their way from work site to work site. People stopped me to tell me they had goose bumps.  There was JOY in the air, and proud amazement that we were really going to pull it off.  

The best moment was at the very end when all but the KaBOOM! team and a handful of us from Linscott were left. A woman from the neighborhood walked by and asked, “What happened here today!?” She said a young man had walked past her house as he left the build site, and simply stepped into her yard to help her garden. “That NEVER happens in this neighborhood.”

Well, after our magical day it just may. We mixed concrete to hold up our playground; we mixed friendship, joy and pride to cement the bonds that hold us together as a community. Long after the children who play on this playground are grown, we will all remember the spirit of joy with which it was built. I feel immensely privileged to have been part of it all.

Learn more about the Cesar Chavez Day of Service.

By Julio Salcedo
Site Director, Lytle Creek Park, San Bernadino, Calif.

Hello and a good day to everyone from Lytle Creek Community Center in the city of San Bernardino, Calif. It has been a pleasure and an honor to expose our youth to the KaBOOM! service learning curriculum focusing on the values of Cesar Chavez. Our center decided that pairing up our teens with our younger kids would make the experience much more interactive and fun for both age groups, and the experiment has worked!

In our first session, we asked the group what they thought service learning means. The children learned that service learning involves caring about the needs of the community and changing our behavior to better the places where we live.

The following sessions included:

• Public relations, where they developed Build Day invitations for VIPs and started thinking about thank-you cards for volunteers
• Playground safety, where children developed playground rules, talked about the importance of sharing the playground with others and discussed the consequences of not following the rules
• Cesar Chavez, where the whole session was dedicated to learning more about his life. Participants wrote short essays on the core values and read them to the rest of the group.
• History of our city, where the children learned about the city’s first female mayor, the first Latino mayor, the founding community of our city, the gold rush within our own city, and the many presidents and vice presidents who have visited.

We always knew, and it becomes more obvious by the day, that the KaBOOM! playground is more than a playground. It has sparked excitement, community pride and a desire to serve. Thank you, and we are anxiously waiting for our Build Day on Saturday, Mar. 29.

Learn more about Cesar Chavez Day

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.

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!