Meet April's Playspace Finder Rockstars!
Meet the best of the best. They worked hard. They played harder. And they uploaded a LOT of playspaces into the KaBOOM! Playspace Finder! They are...April's Playspace Finder Rockstars. Behold their greatness!

Landscape Structures
Ruth Schumi
aeh4543

New stuff to watch!
Why not take a few minutes out of your day to watch a playground being built by an NBA star?

Missing: Your playface.
If found, please post in kaboom.org profile.
Remember that April is the month to show us your playface by posting a picture in your profile! JCooper has helpfully taken some time to illustrate what constitutes a "playface" (and what doesn't) in the Forums.

Now where did I put that playspace?
It was here a minute ago.
If you ever want to go back to a playspace you previously added to the KaBOOM! Playspace Finder, we have a new feature that can help! First, log in to kaboom.org. Then go to the KaBOOM! Playspace Finder page. Scroll down the page and look to the right. Underneath the menu, you will see a box called "My Playspaces." It's a list of all the playgrounds you have entered into the KaBOOM! Playspace Finder! Now you can easily add new pictures and comments to your playspaces.

Online Community page has nifty new features
Hot off the presses...you can now see the last five completed playspace projects and recent additions to the KaBOOM! Playspace Finder on the Online Community page. Check it out!

After Years of Debate, Parks Board Votes in Favor of Poolesville Skate Park
6,600-Square-Foot Facility Awaits Commissioners Board Approval
By Meghan Tierney
Montgomery County Gazette
May 15, 2008

After more than two years of debate, Poolesville's Parks Board has recommended building a skate park in the upcounty town.

If approved by the Commissioners Board, the skate park would be the first recreational facility other than traditional parks built by the town, Town Manager Wade Yost said.

The seven-member Parks Board's 4 to 0 vote in favor of a skate park was greeted with applause from about 60 people who gathered at a meeting last week to show support for the facility. Chairman George Deyo, Vice Chairman Doug McKenney and board member Kurt Behrend abstained.

"We just had a huge crowd," McKenney said after the room had mostly cleared and the board was deciding the details of its recommendation. "Clearly, there are people who want this."

...

The May 7 meeting began with a presentation from Peter D'Amelio, a Poolesville resident and chairman of KaBoom, a District-based nonprofit that helps communities plan, design, build and raise money for play spaces, including skate parks.

"You can have a city that builds a skate park or you can have a city that becomes a skate park," D'Amelio told the board. "I think Poolesville's a great city, it's a city that deserves a skate park, and as a citizen of Poolesville, I'm here to make it happen."

...

Read the full article

Learn how to advocate for playspaces in your community

Volunteers, NASCAR Drivers Build South Charlotte Playground
Dropping the green flag to fun outdoors
By Steven Brown
Charlotte Observer

In the morning there was bare ground, and by afternoon, south Charlotte children had a new place to play.

About 500 volunteers spent Wednesday building a playground at the Kennedy Campus of Elon Homes for Children. It was the 31st playground -- and first in Charlotte -- built by Racing to Play, a program sponsored by Home Depot, the NASCAR Foundation, Joe Gibbs Racing and KaBOOM!, a nationwide organization that creates places where children can play near their homes.

...

The construction crew included NASCAR drivers Tony Stewart, Greg Biffle and Johnny Sauter; former racer Rusty Wallace; and Craftsman Truck Series drivers Stacy Compton, Brian Scott, Scott Lagasse Jr., Sean Murphy and Colin Braun. Stopping work to sign autographs, Stewart said the new playground offers children more than recreation. "They'll build social skills and relationships that will last a lifetime," Stewart said.

...

Read the full article

Learn more about the partnership between KaBOOM! and The Home Depot

High Arsenic Levels Found At Fort Reno Park in NW
By Paul Duggan
Washington Post
May 15, 2008

A 33-acre federal park in Northwest Washington was abruptly shut yesterday and will remain closed indefinitely after soil analysis found arsenic levels far above what the federal government considers safe, officials said.

Fort Reno Park, near Woodrow Wilson High School in the Tenleytown neighborhood, was closed at 6 a.m. Terry Slonecker, a scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey, said he informed the D.C. Department of the Environment that soil samples contained arsenic levels up to 25 times higher than federal regulations allow.

...

Read the full article

Learn how to get the soil tested at your park or playground site

The recent playground build in Marietta, Ga. (the 1,000th Home Depot/KaBOOM! build in 1,000 days) featured some new and unique play equipment you might not be familiar with: Evos™.

The equipment is produced by Landscape Structures, who describe Evos™  like so:

Evos™ playstructures offer almost endless physical, mental and creative challenges. Kids love deciding how to play on equipment they've never seen before. They can't get enough of the suspended play events and bouncy Corocord® climbing cables, which build upper-body strength and core strength as kids balance and counterbalance their bodies against the forces of gravity.

You can see kids playing on the Evos™ equipment in Marietta in our photo gallery.

Learn more Evos™ here.

Playground to be work of full community
May 13, 2008
By Laurel Walker
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel

Governmental gobbledygook aside, something special is under way in Oconomowoc.

Gov. Jim Doyle proclaimed last Thursday "Oconomowoc Community Built Playground Design Day" - huh? - and not to be outdone, Waukesha County Executive Dan Vrakas followed suit.

Cathy Schreiber doesn't mind a politician bringing that "sense of importance" to a grass-roots project she cares about, so she brushed off my mockery of one more proclamation from the gubernatorial assembly line that bring us such gems as Root Canal Appreciation Day.

"Obviously, it got your attention," she noted. Touché.

What really gets my attention, though, is not a politician's pomp but a bottom-up effort of community volunteers to build a playground for children, fully accessible to those with disabilities right alongside those without.

This one looks like it will be a doozy.

...

Read the full article

Learn how to make play a priority with your elected officials

Beacon residents raising funds for playground equipment
By DUANE NOLLEN
The Oskaloosa (Iowa) Herald
May 9, 2008

OSKALOOSA — The city of Beacon needs some new playground equipment at the City Hall grounds, and Jennifer Thomas-Maxwell has been working for about a year to make it happen.

...

Thomas-Maxwell said there will be many family activities during the two-day fund-raising event at City Hall. There will be carnival rides, games, concessions, a bake sale, face painting, a street dance and an auction.

“We’ll also be doing family pictures,” she said. Bubbafly Photography will do the family portraits.

“We’ll have small games. … There will be a greased pig contest Saturday … and a street dance Saturday night,” she said.

Almost 30 local businesses are contributing $4,494 of merchandise for the auction.

...

Read the full article

Check out the fundraising section of our Toolkit for more ideas!

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!

Engineering a playground
By Jodi Blasé
Burlington (Mass.) Union
May 08, 2008

Mary Sweeney is an engineer who took time off to raise her family, only to discover her former occupation could provide a much-needed service to Francis Wyman School. Sweeney’s involvement began almost two years ago when she started attending PTO meetings.

“There were discussions about renovations in the playground, especially around the Burlington LABBB program. The safety of the playground had deteriorated so much that they could no longer bring the children out to play. There was even one section of the playground that was near the school windows that created dust in the classroom and the teachers wanted it paved over,” she said.

By the last PTO meeting in May of ’07, the board learned that both money and plans weren’t approved. Sweeny, who had been voted secretary, along with other officers of the PTO, thought they should take matters into their own hands to help initiate a new play area.

“We thought it would help the school if the PTO formed a playground committee so that there would be another group of advocates to promote the cause,” she said.

...

Read the full article

Become a Playmaker to advocate for play in your community!