Okay... who broke the Internet?
Beginning next week on Wednesday, KaBOOM! HQ will be temporarily shutting down the Forums for what is commonly referred to in the Web world as "maintenance and optimization." The major change you will see is a streamlined number of categories for conversations. We will be taking paring our list of 19 categories down to seven.

We think this will improve your experience on the site and allow to find the information and inspiration you need for your playful projects.

If you have any other suggestions for other features you would like to on the Forums, feel free to post them in the "Website Support" thread (or you can email Jason at jcooper[at]kaboom.org).

Did you finish a project this month?
There were nearly 50 projects scheduled to finish in the month of June. Was your playground one of them?

Let the world know how it all turned out! Visit kaboom.org/projects, login, and on the right side of the page, you will see a link to your playspace projects. Under 'Actions' click 'Edit Project' and you will a screen similar to this:



Change the build date, the actual cost, the project's status (hopefully to "complete"), and when you're done, click 'Save'. It's an easy way to share your amazing news with the KaBOOM! community!

"A moment like this..."
Recently, Jason Cooper, your Online Community "best friend 4ever," shared a fun story about introducing KaBOOM! to a crowd full of techies at a conference. Jason, glory hound that he is, posted that moment on the Forums.

Have you had a moment like this, when people's ears perked up at the mention of your project? Share it in the Forums!

Enjoy these delicious and refreshing "Forums Classic" threads!
Alternative grass/playing surfaces
Purchasing Equipment - Discounts from Vendors?
I'm a new Playmaker - anyone else?

One of the biggest challenges facing any community-build playground project is fundraising. That is why KaBOOM! offers communities occasional grant opportunities to begin or complete playspace projects.

Here are our two current grant opportunities:

KaBOOM! - Grable Foundation Grant
The Grable Foundation and KaBOOM! are joining forces to offer an exciting grant opportunity to qualifying organizations in Allegheny; Butler; Beaver; Washington; and Westmoreland counties in Pennsylvania. This grant program demonstrates the Grable Foundation’s commitment to supporting community-based groups with a desire to build fun and healthy community playgrounds, and exemplifies how KaBOOM! empowers communities with the tools, knowledge and the inspiration necessary to create great places to play. There are two grants left! Download the application here.

Yet another reason to attend a WE Play! near you - $7,500 grants available! (Sponsored by KOOL-AID)
Do the kids in your community need great places to play? If your answer is YES, then sign up for one of our FREE Workshops Entirely on Play (WE Play!).

At select WE Play! events sponsored by KOOL-AID, (Atlanta, Los Angeles, Houston and Cleveland), applications will be available for five $7,500 grants toward building a playground in their community! Only WE Play! attendees are eligible to apply.

At WE Play!, you’ll learn how to plan, fund, and complete a community-build playground project AND advocate for more play in your community.

With the generous support of our partners KOOL-AID and The Home Depot, we've got FREE trainings scheduled across the country including Houston (July 10), Cleveland (Aug. 7), and Atlanta (Aug. 21) in the coming months. Get started on the path toward building a great playground today!

By DANI SCHWEIGERT
Lake County (Ill.) Journals

ROUND LAKE – Get ready, Round Lake Area. A new place to play is coming your way.

Discover Financial Services and KaBOOM!, a national nonprofit organization that helps communities build playgrounds, have teamed up with the Round Lake Area Park District to build a playground and skate park at the park district’s Community Center.

“It’s going to add to the function, operation and amenities of the park district and the community center,” said Jeff Nehila, executive director of the park district. [More]

Want to build a playground in your neighborhood? We've got all the tools you need!

Partnership with KaBOOM!, WaMu bringing new play area to child development center on Compton Boulevard
By Allison Jean Eaton
Compton (Calif.) Bulletin
June 25, 2008

COMPTON – From your typical slide and swing set to more imaginative requests like a tree house, tunnel and “choo-choo train,” toddlers and pre-school age children who spend their days at the child development center at the YWCA offered up requests for their up-and-coming new playground.

Nonprofit KaBOOM! and Washington Mutual (WaMu) have teamed to make the new playground a reality. The two organizations hosted a design day Tuesday, June 17 at the YWCA of Greater Los Angeles’ Compton Boulevard location. [More]

Learn how to plan a Design Day

Don't miss out! We've just posted more new webinars! All you need is a phone and an Internet connection to participate. Register today!

Revitalizing Playspaces, Becoming Part of the Urban Parks Movement
Wed., July 2

Safety, Surfacing, and Vendors…Oh My!
Wed., July 16

How to Plan a Play Day
Thurs., July 17

And don't forget these other great, upcoming webinars:

Becoming a KaBOOM! Community Partner
Mon., June 30

Making the Ask: Getting Business Sponsorships
Wed., July 30

EXTRA! EXTRA! Read All About It! Working with the Media during Your Playground Project
Fri., Aug. 1

Grant Writing 101
Mon., Aug. 19

CNN and KaBOOM! are teaming up to build a playground in New Orleans this Saturday. Here's how you can be a part of the action!

• See photos from the Design Day
• See photos from the Build Day (coming June 30)
• Discuss this playground build in the Forums
• Watch CNN.com/health for their coverage of the day.

If you're planning on building a playspace, you can't go wrong with the KaBOOM! Project Planner. It's a great way to track volunteers and funding for your project, and it puts your project in our searchable database so funders and volunteers can find you!

Based on registered projects, here's who's been building (and is planning to build) in the month of June. Send happy thoughts their way! (Click the "Read more" button for the list!)

With more than half of the world’s population now living in cities, urban parks and green spaces have a more important role than ever.  Parks connect people to nature, provide spaces for relaxation and recreation, and strengthen both the body and the spirit.  The 2008 International Urban Parks Conference, scheduled for September 21-23 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, will explore this valuable connection. Body and Soul: Parks and the Health of Great Cities will bring together leading-edge research experts, public officials, and management innovators to help shape the future of our cities.
 
Over 90 speakers will provide practical information on issues from managing parks sustainably to forming partnerships that promote active living through park usage.  Keynote addresses from Teresa Heinz, Luis Garden Acosta, and Richard Louv focus on making connections between people, parks, and the environment as a whole. 

Many conference sessions directly address the need to establish parks as centers for healthy, active living.  Topics include “One Step at a Time: Promoting Physical Activity in the Park,” “No One Left Inside: Lifting Barriers to Park Access for All,” and “Re-Discovering Our Neighbors and Our Community in City Parks.”

In addition to the wide variety of conference sessions, attendees can participate in a number of pre-conference tours, including visits to Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater and bike and kayak tours of Pittsburgh.  Tours of Pittsburgh’s downtown and riverfront will highlight the city’s near-miraculous transformation from “Smoky City” to America’s Most Livable City.  Mobile workshops in Pittsburgh’s parks will present in-depth case studies that showcase a wide range of innovative restoration and development initiatives.  And the Body and Soul Exhibit Hall will feature the parks-related products and services of nearly 50 organizations.

Body and Soul is a presentation of City Parks Alliance and the National Association for Olmsted Parks and is a production of the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy.  The complete schedule, speaker information, and registration are available at www.urbanparks08.org.

June 28 & 29, 11 am – 5 pm

Imaginative Foam Blocks of a Variety of Shapes and Sizes, Fabric, Tarps and Cardboard Nurture Fun, Imaginative Play

Queens, N.Y. – June 17, 2008 - Children of all ages are invited to play with hundreds of foam building blocks from Imagination Playground, which nurtures creative play and is being planned for downtown New York City, when the Hall in the Anthony Viscusi Gallery at the New York Hall of Science is transformed into a giant playground for kids of all ages on June 28 and 29th between 11am and 5pm.  This event will feature over 265 blue foam blocks of different weights and sizes, which children will be able to build structures and sculptures, tear them down, and then start all over again.  They will also be able to integrate loose parts and found objects, including fabrics, tarps and reused cardboard, into the fun. 
 
The foam blocks, designed by the Rockwell Group, are part of the architecture and design firm’s Imagination Playground which is being built in Burling Slip near South Street Seaport, as well as in an abbreviated form in Brownsville, Brooklyn.  There are others being planned for the remaining boroughs of New York, and throughout the country. Rockwell Group first developed the design and concept for Imagination Playground, which breaks ground this summer, to nurture creative play through a combination of loose parts, water and sand, creating an infinite number of creative play ideas and ensuring that no two visits to the play ground are ever the same. This type of design architecture allows for transformative, socio-cooperative and imaginative constructive play, which can evolve as children mature.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – KaBOOM!, a national non-profit organization that empowers communities to build playgrounds, and CNN announced an agreement to promote play as part of an active lifestyle for children.

KaBOOM!, which has directly facilitated the building of more than 1,400 playspaces across North America since its inception in 1995, will join with CNN and Cox Communications to build a playground at Pontiff Park in New Orleans in just one day on June 28  that will provide more than 10,000 children with a great place to play. CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta will participate in the build, which will be covered as part of CNN’s Fit Nation programming, a multi-platform initiative to stop obesity.

“We’re thrilled to collaborate with CNN in this endeavor,” KaBOOM! CEO and co-founder Darell Hammond said. “We’re optimistic that promoting healthy and active lifestyles with CNN will produce positive change on multiple fronts. There’s no question that increasing the amount of time children play on a playground is a critical component to our goal of improving fitness and health.”

The build will be featured on CNN’s House Call with Dr. Sanjay Gupta, a program dedicated to the latest health and medical developments and airs on Saturdays and Sundays from 7:30 to 8 a.m. (CT), as well as Fit Nation segments across the network’s properties. The playground build also marks the first CNN Fit Nation activity in 2008. CNN’s Fit Nation initiative began in 2006 as an ongoing multi-platform initiative to stop obesity and encourage healthier lifestyles. Over the past two years, Fit Nation and Gupta have traveled across the country engaging people in their own communities to get more active and develop local programs to meet the challenges of being overweight.

By HOPE HODGE
New York Sun
June 23, 2008

New York elementary schools are woefully lacking in outdoor play spaces, with nearly half of all schools having no playground for recess, and schools in minority communities are the worst off, a new report released yesterday by state Senator Jeffrey Klein finds.

Mr. Klein introduced a bill that would ban the construction of any school without a playground and prohibit current schools from using yard space for any purpose that would result in less room for play areas. [More]

Learn more about the benefits of play.

WPBT (PBS)

When we launched our web portal, uVu, last year, we expected the project to become a source for stories by and about the community, but always with the hope that we could connect with people in a physical space as well. Late last week we had another opportunity to do that and you can watch the video here.

In Plantation, there was a small park on Fig Tree Lane, damaged by Hurricane Wilma, that had fallen almost completely into disrepair. But thanks to some impressive partners and a lot of community "sweat equity" a new park was erected on the site. Despite the threat of rain and an early morning string of thunderstorms, volunteers turned out (and returned) to put this park together in a single day. A partnership between KaBOOM, which is a non-profit organization dedicated to building parks across the country, the Massey-Yardley Dealership, the City of Plantation officials and dozens of Plantation neighbors helped raise the new playground. [More]

Learn more about KaBOOM! Funding Partners.
 

Parents, clubs, businesses provide money for school facility in poor neighborhood
By Cathy Spaulding
Muskogee (Okla.) Daily Phoenix
June 21, 2008

Sixth-grader Kayla Royse said she didn’t have a decent playground set for all the years she spent at Irving Elementary School.

“I just walk around and be bored during recess,” she said. “I didn’t think I could ever get to see a playground set that was fun.”

When Kayla and other Irving students come back to school this August, they’ll have a new set — yellow and Rougher green, complete with humpy slides, towers and spiral ladders.

Irving school administrators and Parent Teacher Organization members said hard work and good fortune helped them raise the thousands of dollars to buy and put up the playground set.

Irving, however, faced an extra challenge because of its high poverty rate, Irving principal Dr. Pam Bradley said. In 2007, 87 percent of Irving students were on free or reduced lunch. Tony Goetz Elementary, where Bradley used to be principal, had a 60 percent of its students on free or reduced lunch. The district average was 75 percent on free and reduced lunch; the state average, 56 percent. [More]

Check out the KaBOOM! one-stop fundraising shop for all kinds of fundraising resources!

Police say young people caught on tape setting fire
By ROBIN FITZGERALD
Biloxi Sun-Herald

GULFPORT -- Surveillance cameras at Bel-Aire Elementary filmed several young people as they gathered pine straw and set the school playground on fire Friday, authorities said.

The blaze heavily damaged one of two sets of colorful playground equipment in a fire possibly started on a 2-inch layer of rubber padding. The padding was on top of a concrete slab, a safety feature to cushion the falls of kids using the slides and climbing bars. The fire melted the yellow slides and a blue canvas covering that offered a bit of shade.

"I'm talking first-class playground equipment," said Henry Arledge, superintendent of the Harrison County School District. "It's very expensive equipment, probably between $15,000 and $30,000." [More]

Discuss playground vandalism in the Forums.

5-year-old leads charge to create eco-friendly park
By Rob Daniel
Iowa City Press-Citizen
June 21, 2008

Last fall, Jim Cochran's next-door neighbor, Jay Dean, planned to get rid of the backyard playground he had built for his children years ago.

Cochran offered to take it, and his 5-year-old son, Sebastian, had some ideas of what to do with it.

"I just thought about it," Sebastian said.

The end result was a playground in his backyard that was enjoyed by the family and the entire neighborhood Friday afternoon. Using motifs ranging from Noah's Ark to a treehouse, Sebastian, his father, his father's girlfriend, Lisa DeShano, and neighbors and friends transformed a basic wooden structure into the ultimate playland that is fun and ecologically friendly in that it was built with roughly 95 percent recycled materials.

"It's saving the environment," DeShano said. "It's more than saving money." [More]

Discuss eco-friendly and natural playgrounds in the Forums.

By Nick Hytrek, Sioux City (Iowa) Journal
June 23, 2008

HUBBARD, Neb. -- When they began raising money to replace old playground equipment in their town's park, members of the newly formed Hubbard Betterment Committee had a simple goal: Out with the old, in with the new.

It seemed like a straightforward task. Raise enough money to get new, safe equipment to replace old metal swings, a merry-go-round that had rusty bolts sticking up out of it and a slide that long ago had stopped meeting modern safety standards.

But in the months that followed since they began meeting in late 2006, committee members noticed something else happening. They weren't just updating an old playground, they were replacing old attitudes.

Hubbard residents, both old and new, were opening up more than their checkbooks. They were opening their eyes to the possibilities for their town. They were asking how they, too, could help. They were thinking of other ways to improve their community of 234 people. [More]

Learn how to organize your community to build a playground

New photo galleries from KaBOOM! playground builds have just been added to the website! Enjoy!

Oxnard, CA - Boys and Girls Club of Greater Oxnard and Port Hueneme (Amgen Foundation), 6/7/08

Charlotte, NC - Elon Homes For Children (The Home Depot Racing to Play), 5/14/08

Chicago, IL - St. Turibius School (Reedy Industries), 5/31/08

Atlanta, GA - Cleveland Avenue Elementary School (Post HOPE Foundation) 5/9/08

See all photo galleries.

By Babs Johnson
Times-Picayune (New Orleans)
June 20, 2008

FEMA's slow response to the restoration of New Orleans' public ball fields and playgrounds shows a sweeping disregard for those who have been affected most: our children. My jaw dropped reading a recent statement from FEMA that the expense of sod vs. seed "required review from high authority," an astounding comment after the recent revelation that $85 million in supplies for Katrina victims languished unknown and unused for two years.

Many of the trailers that housed displaced people on city playgrounds have been vacant for six months; some for eight. Why couldn't FEMA and the city reach agreements on how to restore the play areas before the trailers were removed, since both agencies were aware that would happen months prior to the actual removal dates?

Many children in these neighborhoods relied on these ball fields and playgrounds. They were the only places providing them safe, wholesome places to play -- that is, to do the important work of childhood. Without those, many are finding the street corners and all the ills that lifestyle holds. [More]

Learn how KaBOOM! is bringing play back to the Gulf Coast through Operation Playground.

BY DEBORAH MEDENBACH
Middletown (N.Y.) Times Herald-Record
June 18, 2008

NEW PALTZ — A "candy mint" crab apple tree was planted Tuesday morning near the new Lenape Elementary School playground. The tree honors a group of 23 students who complained two years ago that there wasn't enough play equipment or shade on the playground.

"It was a pea-gravel lot with two slides, some basketball hoops, benches and cracked macadam. The kids would just run in the field and come back during recess. There was no shade," third-grade teacher Jim Longbotham recalled.

Rather than dismissing the students' complaints, teachers encouraged them to take action and write letters about what they needed.

"There was $16,000 left over from building Duzine Elementary School's playground (also in the New Paltz School District) and we thought we could buy a little equipment with that, but then we started looking at the bigger picture," Longbotham said. The teachers held an assembly and showed the students potential playground equipment. [More]

Learn how to take action for play by becoming a Playmaker!

By Sam Penrod
KSL News
June 18th, 2008

A humanitarian-aid project is bringing electric light to an area of the world that has never seen electricity before.

It was coordinated by some BYU engineering students who just returned from Ghana where the project was completed.

The students helped a Utah company that designed a small power generator. It's powered by school children as they play on playground equipment that they've also never seen before.

The village in Ghana has its first merry-go-round, but more importantly, the first electricity. The power is generated by young children playing on the playground. [More]

Improve a playground near you by building a bench, painting a mural, or adding another side project.

By JEFFREY KLUGER
TIME Magazine
June 12, 2008

Excerpt:

Obese boys and girls are already starting to develop the illnesses of excess associated with people in their 40s and beyond: heart disease, liver disease, diabetes, gallstones, joint breakdown and even brain damage as fluid accumulation inside the skull leads to headaches, vision problems and possibly lower IQs. A staggering 90% of overweight kids already have at least one avoidable risk factor for heart disease, such as high cholesterol or hypertension. Type 2 diabetes is now being diagnosed in teens as young as 15. Health experts warn that the current generation of children may be the first in American history to have a shorter life expectancy than their parents'. "The more overweight you are, the worse all of these things will be for you," says acting U.S. Surgeon General Steven Galson. And, warns Seeley, the worse they are likely to stay: "When you're talking about morbidly obese kids, zero percent will grow up to be normal-weight adults." [More]

Discuss the obesity epidemic in our Forums.

Lieberman, hospice owner win volunteerism awards
By DEBORAH HASTINGS
Associated Press
June 18, 2008

Sen. Joseph Lieberman and Nancy Collins, a Mississippi woman who established a rural hospice offering physical and religious care to the terminally ill, were among more than a dozen recipients Tuesday of the Jefferson Awards, given for national and local public service.

...

Other winners during Tuesday's celebration dinner at Washington's Union Station:

Public service by a private citizen: Retired District of Columbia police detective Edward Michael Jagen, creator of the Good Knight Child Empowerment Network, which provides training to children on fending off abuse and sexual advances from adults.

Public service benefiting the disadvantaged: Darell Hammond, leader of KaBOOM! Working with communities and corporate volunteers, Hammond helps bring playgrounds and skate parks to underprivileged areas across the country. Since his organization was founded in 1995 more than 2,000 recreation centers have been built and renovated. [More]

Learn more about the award.

WLOX - Kids welcome KaBOOM! 100th playground

Arizona Republic

Banker and Tradesman

Boston Business Journal

Breitbart.com

Business Journal of Milwaukee

Construction Writers Association

Dayton Business Journal

Houston Chronicle

IT Industry Today

Jacksonville Business Journal

Los Angeles Business

Los Angeles Times

Nashville Business Journal

Orlando Business Journal

Pittsburgh Business Times

RCR Wireless News

South Florida Business Journal

State House News Service

Technology Today

US Politics Today

Learn more about Operation Playground

A photo from the ribbon-cutting at the 100th Operation Playground build appeared on a huge electronic billboard in Times Square in New York City between 10 and 11 a.m. Eastern time on June 16! Here's what it looked like:

The 100th build from Operation Playground was featured on "Good Morning America" today!

Watch the segment here.

Learn more about Operation Playground.

By Molly Walsh
Burlington (Vt.) Free Press
June 16, 2008

WATERBURY — In the bright morning sunshine, three little girls scampered across a dirt path, jumped on boulders, twirled on the stage of an amphitheater and perched under an apple tree to make dandelion and red clover necklaces.

Nearby, several children played a make-believe game best described as “lost baby runs from voracious tiger” that had them running from a large sand pit to a small “cave.” All the action took place on the new school playground at Thatcher Book Primary School.

The rustic facility snugged against a hillside next to the old brick school will be officially dedicated today and perhaps be viewed as a trendsetter. The fun zone is a so-called natural playground designed to eschew plastic and metal in favor of more earthy features that are supposed to help children connect with nature and use their imaginations. [More]

Discuss natural playspaces in our Forums.