A Fairytale Build in Atlanta for the Fairytales Learning Center
Barry & Karen Slay
Fairytales Learning Center
Atlanta, GA

In 2000, Karen Slay, a retired public school teacher, decided that she could not sit by and watch the children of her community fall victim to the risky conditions they lived in. She and her husband, Barry Slay, decided to take action. They remodeled a house and opened a childcare center, the Fairytales Learning Center, which serves 95 children from a community where 98 percent of the children live in low-income neighborhoods.

In 2005, while Barry was attending a school meeting, he learned about KaBOOM! from a peer. After learning more about KaBOOM!, he applied for the Play Smart Challenge Grant. This grant program is a partnership between Bright from the Start Georgia: Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning, Smart Start Georgia, and KaBOOM!. Twenty grants were awarded to childcare centers that serve children who are five years old or younger. In October, Fairytales Learning Center was awarded this $7,500 grant to apply towards a playground. Grantees were required to contribute a minimum of $2,500 to the playground project to purchase $10,000 worth of playground equipment.

With that in mind, Barry and Karen started spreading the word around the community and holding fundraising events to raise the funds. As Barry began to choose equipment, he realized that the equipment he could purchase for $10,000 was just not enough for the Centers children. So, they went back to the drawing board and chose equipment that he thought would be more suitable and set a total project goal of $29,000. Over the course of seven months, the Center was able to raise $22,000 using only three types of fundraisers: holding fish dinners, selling raffle tickets, and soliciting individual donations!

As a result of meticulous planning, the Build Day held on June 3, 2006 went as smoothly as possible. Over fifty volunteers arrived at 7 a.m. to assist and worked diligently throughout the day. Barry and Karen definitely remembered to make the Build Day fun for volunteers by providing music with a DJ, a fantastic community donated lunch, consisting of barbeque ribs, hamburgers, coleslaw, potato salad, and a watermelon eating contest! Karen only had two words to describe the Build Day: "Perfect! Fun!"

Barry and Karen strive to provide quality care for the children of the community and have taken a step further to help the community take ownership of the next generation.

Barrys advice to others trying to build a great place to play: "Anybody can do it. Make it happen and people will respond."