WOW! What an incredible project: incredible partners, incredible outcome!!!

I was very fortunate to be a part of the fantastic playground build in St. Louis, MO, on Sept. 8, 2007. The project was part of a year-long celebration for the Build-A- Bear Workshop's 10-year "annibearsary." Working with KaBOOM! was a fantastic experience. Being involved in the project from start to finish was truly amazing, and watching the children draw and talk about their dream playground was so exciting. Watching it all come together with over 700 volunteers was a sight to see. Jen DeMelo, our KaBOOM! project manager, was the main cheerleader for this project. She guided us through the entire process, and never once did I see her spirit dampen, even when it started to rain. Being in charge of a project that is bringing hundreds of volunteers together from different aspects of life sometimes can be tricky, but Jen always handled things like a pro.

What does the word KaBOOM! sound like to you? To me, it sounds like excitement, and activity, and impact! KaBOOM! has brought all of those things to kids around North America. In 2005 they introduced an initiative called Operation Playground to build 100 playgrounds in the Gulf Coast to help with the recovery process of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. So far, KaBOOM! has built 59 playgrounds in Texas, Mississippi, and Louisiana through this program.

Let me introduce myself.  My name is Hannah, and I have been an intern at KaBOOM! for the past week.

What an exciting day!  We started off by unloading the truck will the playground pieces.  That just set the mood for the rest of the day.  Everyone jumped to be the one who got to unload the big yellow slide!  We broke off into different group from sawing wood, coloring posters and separates tiny pieces so that everything would be organized and go smoothly on Build Day.  After lunch we had an informative meeting lead by our fearless, organized leader Amanda, who assigned everyone to their desired groups for build day.  We then ventured back out in to the hot desert sun for some more chopping of wood and spray painting the outline of the 50-ft. wide United States of America (it took more than a couple people to hold that stencil down).  We ended our day with a quick clean up and a final dare for our friend Jim, to mount a 12-foot pile of wood chips, which he was successful at.  We can’t wait for Build Day and to see everything complete! 

Sarah and Wendy of Build-A-Bear Workshop

After a full day of working at the Bloordale Build-A-Bear park in Toronto, Canada, only one word can describe it: KaBOOM! The day was full of smiling faces and eager community members willing to spend a day packed of doing busy jobs. A member of the community, Keith Storey, kicked the day off with some amazing and very interesting stretches (the dig, spread the mulch, and raise the slide). Not only did it get workers pumped up, but it also put unforgettable smiles on the many children’s faces. The best aspects of the park however, isn’t the slides or the rock climbing walls, or the seemingly endless amounts of mulch; but instead it’s the fact of knowing how the park truly was a community effort, and is now filled with love and (soon to be) incredible memories. Although, (since I am still a kid at heart ) sitting here writing this and staring at the park is killing me! It’s so tempting not to jump on it right now and start playing! I can’t wait until I can come out here and see all of the smiling, laughing children enjoying this amazing park. And even though it was an extremely hard day I know in 10 years or even 20 when I come here with my own kids, even though it won’t be as new, the memories had here will definitely make it shine as if it was preserved in a glass box every day it has existed. So thank you so much KaBOOM! and Build-A-Bear, and everyone else who made this park possible! It’s  going to definitely become an important landmark in our community.

Meghan Froebelius 

Thoughts on friendship from the Houston kids getting a playground from Build-A-Bear Workshop on July 18:

I make friends at the playground by talking. I swing with my friends, play tag, and run.
-Willie, third grade

Playgrounds are a good thing in our neighborhood because lots of kids make good friends. It helps kids get out of trouble. That’s why each neighborhood needs a playground, it is good for the neighborhood. Kids grow up to be best friends. My best friend and I met at the playground.
- a sixth grade student

I make friends at the playground by talking and playing with friends to get to know them better. When you know you will try to meet them every day. Then you and your friend would like to go to school together and try to get in the same class. When you and your friend get in the same class, you are your friend will try to sit by each other. When you and your friend sit by each other y’all will play tag and other games on the playground and that’s how you meet a friend on the playground.
- Jason, sixth grade

I make friends on the playground by playing on the slide, playing on the swing and by climbing the monkey bars. At the playground my friends and I play in the sand making a sandcastle.
- Rayniquea, third grade

I like to play with my friends. I play in the sandbox and ride my bike. I also love sliding.
-Tyireion, kindergarten

New York City Launches “Schoolyards to Playgrounds” Initiative – What Is Your Community Doing with Locked-up Playgrounds? 

NYC Mayor Bloomberg has opened city schoolyards on the weekends, beginning a long-term initiative for every New Yorker to be within a 10-minute walk of a park or playground 

The KaBOOM! vision is to see a playground within walking distance of every child in America.  With such a vision, we have been really pleased by what we see going on in New York City, and our hats off to Mayor Bloomberg and his administration. 

The forums are in full swing here on kaboom.org . . .  

Answers to this and other tantalizing questions can be found on the discussion forums on the KaBOOM! website.  The concept behind these discussion forums is simple: those who are actually planning or building playspaces, and those who are rallying their communities for play, have both the best questions and the best answers. 

If you haven’t visited the forums on the KaBOOM! website recently, do go check again.  Several new posts are going up almost every day from website users, the people who are doing the planning and the building and the rallying for play.  Every once in a while a KaBOOM! staffer offers up a response, but by and large it is the experts across the U.S. who are asking the provoking questions and providing the insightful answers. 

From Casey Clark, HFF Trustee
On June 20, 2007, thanks to the collaborative efforts of Build-A-Bear Workshop, KaBOOM! and The Homeless Families Foundation, over 250 community volunteers from all walks of life came together to build a dream playground for homeless children. Volunteers hand mixed cement, moved mountains of mulch in wheel barrels and tarps, planted plants, painted murals and built benches and no one complained about the heat, everyone just enjoyed the unique experience.  Every volunteer I have talked to said it was an incredible feeling, one they will never forget; it was spiritual. All of our children participated in some way and all were so proud to say they helped make this wonderful playground possible.

What happened during Lincoln's Prep Day One? I'm glad you asked. Together Build-A-Bear, KaBOOM! and Lincoln build captains and volunteers got together in preparation for Build Day, June 27. We had a terrific crew of volunteers from Lincoln and Home Depot working on cutting wood for the side projects. Our awesome Build-A-Bear crew was working on painting the background of the mural. More Build-A-Bear and Lincoln volunteers sorted all the parts of the playground into buckets. Everyone had a wonderful time working hard all day long in order to get the site together. Playworld Systems, our playground vendor, dug the holes where the playground poles will be placed. The energy everyone had was amazing. Everyone was pumped up and excited about getting the playground ready for Build Day. Together, we can make a difference one step at a time. Our volunteers worked hard yesterday and we cannot thank them enough for taking the time out of their busy schedules to help us get things done! Lincoln is proud to work with such fine individuals.

- Jennifer Lyman

One of the advantages of living in DC is that sometimes you can luck into really fun events. Last week, we found out that KaBOOM! had been given several tickets to the annual White House Easter Egg Roll.

This was my first time at the famous event. I really wasn't sure what to expect. To get tickets is considered a "score" by DC locals so I was excited. So was my Mom in Ohio... And Dad... and my cousin in Jersey... etc.

Anyway, for all of those folks who have always wondered what it is like, here you go.

By Michelle Boyd, KaBOOM! client services coordinator

Yesterday, Nicholas Ackerson, another client services coordinator, and I had the pleasure of attending a press conference presented by Gulfsouth Youth Action Corps (GYAC), a New Orleans-based nonprofit that focuses on the growing crisis in the ravaged Gulf Coast.  The GYAC recruits college students from across the country to participate as counselors in a post-Katrina summer camp program that has served over 360 children.  In addition, the GYAC urges civic-minded corporations to contribute to the Action Corps cause to rebuild and sustain high quality youth services.  

Yesterday the GYAC made an urgent “call to action” to restore basic youth programs to areas hit hardest by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

By project manager Nate Rosenthal, KaBOOM! project manager 

“Let me get this straight,” exclaims the passenger sitting next to me on my flight to a February 2 Design Day in Mecca, California – a small unincorporated town of 5,400 farm workers, just southeast of Palm Springs. “KaBOOM! is going to build an entire playspace in just one day?!”

I chuckle at his sense of amazement and fill him in on some additional amazing facts: “Actually, on March 30 and 31, KaBOOM! is facilitating 10 community-built playspaces with the help of CaliforniaVolunteers, Youth Service California, and local communities all across California in an effort to celebrate and commemorate one of the most influential people in both California and United States history – Cesar E. Chavez!”

I have always believed that if we engage children in service early, it’s a gift that will stay with them for a lifetime.

I was so proud to stand beside each volunteer at the Watts Labor Community Action Committee Center and build a playground for kids in the community.  There were mothers and families from the Center and the community, AmeriCorps volunteers and so many people who rolled up their sleeves to build this playground – all because they, too, wanted a safe place for children to play.  (Photo: Maria Shriver, right, and Paul Chavez, left, son of the late Cesar E. Chavez, join volunteers in building a community placespace at the Watts Labor Community Action Committee Center).

I attended my first U Play! in the fall of 2006 and have been trying to get a build done in San Jose ever since then.  In the meantime, I've attended U Plays in Chicago and New Orleans, which was where I discovered that a build would be happening in SJ in less than seven weeks!  What a surprise!  We, in turn, surprised KaBOOM! staff by telling them that the build would be in the neighborhood where Cesar Chavez lived and that family was still in the area.  I'm looking forward to my fourth build with KaBOOM! and am bringing along volunteers from around the city so we can get our feet wet on this project while still working on our own.  I can't tell you HOW EXCITED I am!

-Randi Kinman, volunteer

Community is the one word that sums up what KaBOOM! has meant to Leonard Flynn Elementary School, which is getting a playground March 31.  This project has excited the school community far beyond building a playground – the students are thrilled about the new play structure, the greening committee is anxious to help with the garden and landscaping, the teachers are happy to get some other projects done such as the long awaited four-square courts painted – but most of all parents, students, teachers and staff are humbled by the outpouring of good will and assistance from the surrounding community in the form of volunteers, tools and food donations, monetary donations, offers to tutor later as well as just excitement about this project.

Parents and students have also found new skills from working on the project – learning to solicit donations, using the values of Cesar Chavez to interpret the morals of stories, organizing friends to make large amounts of food to feed volunteers – all while making new connections with people in our community (thanks Youth Service California!) and strengthening existing relationships, people working side by side, no longer strangers, to achieve our goals.

-Beth Thew, Leonard Flynn Elementary School

By Jen DeMelo, KaBOOM! project manager

The phrase "sí se puede" keeps coming to mind when I think of the upcoming program honoring universal rights leader Cesar E. Chavez. This phrase, which means “yes, it can be done,” motivated many who worked alongside Chavez for equality and continues to drive people today in many ways. This phrase is also very powerful to me, as it has guided me through my involvement in the 10 community playgrounds and skateparks that are being built to celebrate the legacy of Chavez.  

As a project manager who has worked for KaBOOM! for almost two years, I have experienced a range of 28 projects in 20 states, but I had never led a program of this magnitude.  The concept originated with Maria Shriver.  She wanted to create 10 places for children to be children, places of play from San Diego to Sacramento that would celebrate and honor the legacy of Chavez while educating children and adults about his important work.   

Observations of “normal” 

I was in Austin, TX, last week for a conference called South by Southwest (SXSW). You might have heard of it. It’s a large event that is much more famous for music and the indie film festival than for anything else, but there was also a big interactive technology conference. 

No. I wasn’t singing or hobnobbing with Hollywood types. I was there being a web geek. 

It was a great conference and, as I get my head back around being in Washington again, I’ll post some things I learned over the next few days. 

First, I’d like to start with an observation. 

Friday, February 9:

12:32 p.m. - It's lunch time folks! Our morning sessions are over and we are now filing down the Hall of Play for gumbo and sandwiches. And with this great food comes two great announcements:

1) We will be posting the presentation from Dr. John Kretzmann, speaker for the Asset-Based Community Development workshop, on the website next week. Stay tuned for more information.

2) For the next 30 days, every person who registers with a completed member profile (including a description and pic) AND completes a project website will receive a free copy of Dr. Kretzmann's book Building Communities from the Inside Out.

Last week, I got an e-mail from someone who works with a neighborhood association that is getting rid of their shared playspace. The people in this community decided that since most of their houses had play equipment in their back yards, the shared playspace wasn't necessary.  

The impulse in contacting KaBOOM! was really very nice. He wanted to offer their play equipment to some other community that, perhaps, couldn't afford their own. The question, however, bothered me.

Just how important is a shared playspace?

The New York Times has been abuzz this month with articles and with letters to the editor about a “radical new playground design” proposed for a park in New York City.  The proposed design replaces monkey bars and swings with foam blocks, ropes and pulleys, and “play workers”, an envisioned cadre of paid, yellow-clad grown-ups whose job is to direct wee ones in the form and etiquette of proper play.

For the pat 39 years, we have celebrated a great man in Martin Luther King who, with great words, moved this great nation and changed the world forever. He set a precedent with his jeremiad and his speeches have inspired millions and multiple generations to fight for civil rights. Now we need to do the same in this time to inspire people about the rights being stripped away from another group, our children. How do we establish a jeremiad for play? How can we speak in a tone and a text that will uplift the inner child of thousands?

Ok, I’m checking out my Yahoo headlines today when I see an article titled: Study: Tween girls at risk for fatness. Um, yeah, 10 was about the age when people stopped referring to it as baby fat, and just started calling it, well, you know, fatness.  What’s a girl to do? I mean, looking back, my pre-adolescent days involved primarily indoor activities: baking cookies, talking on the phone (ok, you caught me, making prank phone calls), and lots and lots of movies.

I am HURTING today.  My arms, legs, feet, left shoulder… the list goes on.  It’s a miracle I made it to my desk.  Being hit by some reindeer would feel better.  Over the holiday break, I decided to join my old high school friends in an Alumni vs Midlothian High School (near Richmond, VA) basketball game.  The alumni do this each year in a momentary lapse of sanity.  The current team, about 10 years younger than most of us, get a kick out of watching “old people” wheeze (and sometimes fall) down the court.  It’s quite entertaining… for them.   

Is there such thing as too much play? This might be a strange question for a KaBOOM! employee to ask, but I’m facing a dilemma in buying my 9-year-old sister Christmas gifts: She hasn’t even played with the some of gifts I got her last year. Is it worth buying her a new round stuff even though the previous “goods” are practically untouched by human hands?

My sister, as the only real kid in the family, gets showered with more gifts than she can use every year. She’s a gracious and polite girl who doesn’t mean to ignore anything. But a gal only has so much time, and she can’t get to all the gadgets, gizmos, and games. She’s overbooked. Plus, our best times are spent playing simply together, like Frisbee out back, a card game, or the timeless sibling classic, Aggravate Your Brother (he’s the middle child and is routinely tortured by us sisters).

The U.S. National Park Service is asking the public what changes can be made to improve the National Mall in Washington, DC.  How about using some of that vast space on the Mall for a showcase universal design, multi-generational, playground?  It makes perfect sense from a variety of perspectives.  From a very practical point of view, what's a better release than play for kids who are in the midst of spending all day indoors going to museums?  Properly landscaped, what better kind of a place for adults to sit and re-invigorate for the next round of seeing the nation’s shrines? 

I remember as a kid running around our back yard, climbing our only tree, and begging my mom to take me to play on the slide at....Burger King.

As a kid, there was no playgrounds close to where i lived. We had a Boys & Girls' Club across the street, a basketball hoop in the back (which actually belonged to the landlord's son, so we couldn't use it), and my school, Holy Trinity Elementary School, in all its paved glory school yard glory.

We were creative and daring youth. We treaded into the older kids' territory at the Boys and Girls' Club, sought adventure on Dexter St. (the main road around the corner) and hopped the fence behind my apartment building to go to each other's houses.

I wonder what life would have been like if there were a park or a playground other than the one at the local Burger King nearby. Although i loved their chicken nuggets...it just never screamed psitive youth development to me.

Britney Spears has finally done it: She served Kevin Federline his walking papers on November 6. And how did she celebrate? By visiting the famed ice rink at Rockefeller Center, skating around in her winter hat.

I think that far too often adults, me included, underestimate the importance of play.  While I am not often pursued by the paparazzi to the playground as Ms. Spears was on her recent trip to the ice rink, as a parent I find that a trip to the playground with my boys clears my head, rejuvenates my spirit and allows me to, simply put, be goofy after a long day that ends sittng next to droopy-faced earphone-wearing commuters buried in frantic last-call text messaging for the day.

So I landed in Rochester on my way to a KaBOOM! playground build day with a couple hours before I was due on the site. Since I'm a father and a play activist, I decided to check out the Strong National Museum of Play.

My amazement began as I entered and was greeted by a world that is  part "Sesame Street" set, part Disney World, part KaBOOM! office, and part Smithsonian. There was a vintage restored (and of course working) carousel in a giant glass atrium, an entire city block street scene, and an old diner car serving lunch and offering respite to weary parents. And oh yes ... the walls ... they were covered with inspiring quotes on the importance of play made by thought leaders in virtually every field. (Not bad for an entryway!).