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.”

The Design Day included an inspection of the future playground site and time for children to draw their ideal playgrounds and tell the adults about their drawings. Nate Rosenthal, the project manager from KaBOOM!, explained to the adults what to expect during the community build process and had them brainstorm where they could get the various things needed for the Build Day – from food and utensils for volunteers to the tools needed to build the playground. Then they selected the components they wanted for the new playground structure based on the children’s drawings.

“I think it’s really neat they’re getting the playground of their dreams,” said Allyson Wilson, a parent who was present at the Design Day. “If they can draw it, we can build it.”

Are you planning a playground and want to learn more about how to hold a Design Day? Check out our online Toolkit section on planning it!

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