The Disney Company is known for its theme parks, but now Disney is thinking small, trying to make city playgrounds more fun for the kids who use them. NY1's Roger Clark visited one of the first to try out the new ideas.

The city parks department has nearly one thousand playgrounds, with some neat stuff for kids to frolic on.

"We have interesting play equipment, fun play equipment, but we don't have things that kids can actually move around," says New York City Parks and Recreation Assistant Commissioner Nancy Bathold.

New York Times: Watching a child — no, make that hundreds of thousands of children — grow up in a cityscape without a specific escape hatch, namely a playground to serve as a safe outlet and an oasis, has haunted Rose H. Harvey for decades.

She takes it quite personally. So personally that she is driven by an unusual agenda: by 2010, she intends that as many as 300 underachieving New York City schoolyards will morph, at an average cost of $1 million each, into vibrant outdoor playgrounds to invigorate the all-too-stationary PlayStation generation.

It's easy to feel lazy during these last hot days of summer. But don't let the heat stop you from fundraising for your dream community playspace! We've got some tips to keep cool and raise some money at the same time: Hold a Fruity Fundraiser or host a Lemonade Stand – read on for details.

Want more inspiration? Visit our wiki list of 101 Tried and True Fundraising Ideas for more! You can even add in your own ideas and thoughts.

Help KaBOOM! and Win a Free Apple iPhone.

Please join me in congratulating Neal 'videoflyer' Katz from Illnois, because he is the winner of the KaBOOM! iPhone Giveaway!

Neal added four playgrounds to the Playspace Finder from his local area in Deefield, Illinois.  Take a look at Jewett Park (also with a skatepark), Maplewood Park, McLean Rohn Memorial Playground, and Brickyards Park.

KaBOOM! would like to extend a big thank you to everyone who entered the contest.  Hundreads of new playgrounds, skateparks, and more were added to the Playspace Finder, making it an even better way to find the great places to play in your neightboorhood.

Click here to learn more about KaBOOM! contests and other winners.

Swampscott, MA - Harry Potter movies and music that just might appeal to most ages will be on tap for a good cause Friday night at Linscott Park in an outdoor celebration to raise funds for a new and improved Jackson Park playground.

The Jackson Park Neighborhood Association is behind the Harry Potter Movie Night, which will feature music until dark by the local band RedRock and then a Harry Potter movie on the “big screen” in the park, which is at the corner of Humphrey Street and Monument Avenue.The event, to raise part of the $150,000 needed to replace the old Jackson Park playground between the Machon School (now closed) and the new Swampscott High School, is intended to be fun. Funds will come Friday from donation cans and sales of food and drinks.

New equipment is popping up at playgrounds all over this summer, with more planned for next year. It's all about keeping kids safe, getting them to exercise -- and inspiring their imagination. There's a new, safer version of spinning activities, for example.

Rotating merry-go-rounds, where you stood on a circular platform while someone pushed you by running madly around you, have disappeared. Kids tended to fall off when going really fast. The newer merry-go-rounds have nettings, such as the one in Lindenhurst.

The WNBA is hosting a special online auction on WNBA.com, offering fans a chance to bid on autographed items and unique experiences with their favorite WNBA and NBA stars.  Running through July 23, proceeds from the auction will benefit WNBA Cares Community Partners including: the KaBOOM! Leave a Legacy of Play Fund, CARE and the UN Foundation.

The WNBA Cares All-Star auction was part of a week-long series of community outreach programs taking place in Washington, D.C., which led up to the 2007 WNBA All-Star Game on Sunday, July 15 at the Verizon Center.  

KaBOOM! is very happy to announce the first three winners in our "Spruce Up" contest.

The three Playspace Finder users below just won a $500 dollar gift card to help "Spruce Up" their playspaces! Add a Playspace and you could win!

• Kelly "kaffy123" Frey won for adding the Lincoln Park playground in Beaver Dam, WI.
  
  
• Char "cmad" Madsen won for adding Turner School Playground in West Chicago, IL
  
  
• Mark "Mr. Playground" White won for adding Howard Park in Lee's Summit, MS

And don't forget that the last day to enter the iPhone Contest is July 16th! If you haven't entered yet, please sign-up and add those playgrounds. Remember, each new playspace you add is another chance to win an Apple iPhone!

See more contests and past winners

Heat on Friday nudged outdoor playtime earlier and cut it shorter than scheduled for nearly 70 children at Stockton's Seifert Community Center day camp.

Once it got going, though, campers cheered on teammates during a running, jumping, twirling relay race, while other groups played basketball or made up their own games on playground equipment. According to environmentalists, child-development specialists and other advocates, telling kids to "Go out and play" can keep them healthier, less stressed and more imaginative.

But, those advocates worry, what used to be something children just did - playing outside - is becoming increasingly rare amid the wide-ranging allure of television, video games and other indoor pursuits, as well as parents' worries about sending their kids out-of-doors without supervision.

The playground memories of my childhood are a dismal blur of skinned knees, ugly metal jungle gyms and sun-baked asphalt.

What a pleasant surprise then to discover a kinder, gentler generation of playgrounds slowly taking root. They're user-friendly and green, showing how environmental sustainability can be built into the most modest chunks of urban infrastructure. May this movement flourish.

July is National Parks and Recreation Month, and countless Americans will enjoy taking their children to neighborhood playgrounds for fun outdoor activities this summer. In fact, the American Council for Fitness and Nutrition recommends playing outside with your children as a top way to set a positive example for a healthy lifestyle.

Across the Chicago area, several home building companies have taken note and are debuting new playgrounds this summer.

"Today's busy families want to live near a variety of recreation options, including playgrounds for their younger children," said Bob Meyn, spokesman for Talamore, a master-planned development in Huntley. "So it's only logical that builders start incorporating new playground designs and locations to bolster kids' exercise and make playtime easier to schedule."

EUGENE, Ore. -- The children race to the sand, squealing. Their teacher calls for them to finish lunch -- to no effect. "Today I'm finding the dinosaur," declares a barefoot boy, pants soaked to his knees. He dams a small stream running through the pit and surveys his domain: an expanse designed to look like a paleontological dig. Then he burrows into sand he believes conceals the life-size metal replica of an ichthyosaur, a Jurassic Age reptile.

The sand pit full of squirming 7-year-olds is just one of the many draws of a new kind of playground called RiverPlay Discovery Village, which opened last year.

It's incredibly valuable real estate: hundreds of acres of public land that sit idle most of the time: New York City school yards. But now Mayor Bloomberg is proposing to turn the vacant yards into beautiful and fully functional public playgrounds. As of today, 69 school playgrounds will be open during after school hours until dusk, and on non-school days, starting at 8:00 a.m., including weekends. Another 290 school playgrounds will be added to the program over the next three years.

KaBOOM! wants to reward one person, chosen at random, with the most talked about gadget of 2007, the Apple iPhone (fair warning - you'll need to buy a two-year service plan to make it work). Entering is simple - just fill out the form below and add an entry to the KaBOOM! Playspace Finder, a national directory of playgrounds, fields, ice rinks, and skate parks. You can search for and add playspaces yourself. Each playground, skate park, and ice rink in the Playspace Finder was entered by people who have a passion for promoting play, just like you.

Each playspace you add is another chance to win! Enter now!

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