An Anniversary Week "Thank You"! 
By Darell Hammond 

This past week has been truly amazing for KaBOOM!, the Gulf Coast and Operation Playground.  Together with our partners, The Home Depot, Hands on Network and Playworld Systems, in 4 days we helped transform 10 playspaces in 7 seven Gulf Coast communities with the help of 3,115 volunteers.  We put up 8 eight structures, plus 25 slides, 27 swings, 3 dino digs, 2 playwebs and 1 LifeTrail (our first-ever, but more about that later). In temperatures that rarely dipped below 90, more than 1,400 cubic yards of mulch (enough to fill 16 semi-trucks!) was moved and nearly 1,300 bags of concrete mix (104,000 pounds all by hand!).  

I turned on my television on the morning of Wednesday, August 30th, the day after the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina making landfall in the Gulf Coast.  On the day of the anniversary every media outlet in the nation was covering the Gulf Coast.  On Wednesday there was no mention of the Gulf Coast, the storms, the rebuilding or even the flooding in New Orleans.  Although the situation in the Gulf was no different than the day before, now that the anniversary had passed it was yesterdays news. 

I've made 16 trips to the Gulf Coast over the past year and can attest that, although incredible amounts of progress have been made, there is still work to be done.  WE CAN'T FORGET.  KaBOOM! and our partners made a commitment to communities in the Gulf that through Operation Playground we would build 100 playgrounds in two years. While other organizations packed up and went home Tuesday night when the anniversary was over, we stayed and demonstrated our commitment to the Gulf Coast by building 5 more playspaces on Wednesday and Thursday.  And were not stopping there!  KaBOOM! will finish-up 2006 by building ten more playgrounds and 70 in 2007.  And wenullre not stopping there!  KaBOOM! will finish-up 2006 by building ten more playgrounds and awarding five challenge grants and building 60 more in 2007.  Our 21st Operation Playground build will be in New Orleans on September 25th.

Earlier this year, in an effort to inspire others to contribute, an anonymous Mississippi donor pledged $500,000 to support Operation Playground. Through this challenge, individual donations to Operation Playground made before September 25 will be matched dollar for dollar, raising up to $1 million for the initiative.  We've already raised over $400,000!  Over the next three weeks we will be making a strong push to raise the final $100,000 to meet our goal.

A Special Thanks To....

Last April, Playworld Systems CEO, Matt Miller, volunteered at our fourth Operation Playground build at War Memorial Park in Pass Christian, MS.  During the board cutting ceremony at the end of the day Matt surprised the Pass Christian community with an incredible gift - Playworld Systems would donate the playground equipment for our ten builds during Anniversary Week.  This past week, in addition to donating over $275,000 worth of equipment, Matt, his parents, Dale and Joan and Playworld staff traveled to the Gulf Coast to volunteer during all four days of our Anniversary Week builds.

If it weren't for the help of the Hands On Network and their incredible volunteers I, along with the rest of the KaBOOM! staff, would probably still be in Mississippi hauling mulch!  One of my many favorite moments from the week was seeing some extraordinary Hands On Network volunteers receive the Presidential Council on Volunteer Service and Civic Participation award in recognition for their work in the Gulf.  Nico Poore and John Harlow from Hands On Network and Jimmy Loiacano from the city Bay St. Louis were three of 100 volunteers recognized by President Bush over the past week for their volunteer contributions to the rebuilding efforts.

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