| KaBOOM! and Stonyfield Farm Announce $50,000 Playground Grant Winners!  In an amazing display of altruism, a college freshman in Maine helped a Boys and Girls Club collect yogurt lids to win a grant to make their facility more playful. They then teamed up to help total strangers hundreds of miles away build a playground at their elementary school. This past fall, organic yogurt maker Stonyfield Farm teamed up with KaBOOM! to provide much-needed places to play for two deserving schools or youth organizations. Through the “Double Play” program, the organization collecting the most specially marked Stonyfield yogurt lids would win a $50,000 grant to build or improve a playspace. The winners would then get to choose a second $50,000 grant recipient from a list of KaBOOM! applicants, chosen on the basis of financial need. The key players get the ball rolling
 After noticing a KaBOOM! “Double Play” promotion on the lid of her Stonyfield yogurt at lunch, Catherine Elliott, a freshman at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, did some research on organizations that could use a place to play. She came across the Auburn/Lewiston Clubhouse of Boys & Girls Clubs of Southern Maine (BGCSM). It didn’t take much convincing to get Andie Hannon, the Unit Director of the Clubhouse, on board. Andie was already working closely with the local police department to clean up community parks and playgrounds so area kids had great places to play. But Andie’s Boys and Girls Club needed a little TLC of its own. The old gym floor was in bad shape, and the paved side lot wasn’t fenced in and didn’t provide club members any green space. Andie knew that a $50,000 grant would change all of that. The campaign begins
With Andie on board and a lofty goal in mind, Catherine launched a campaign to collect all the lids she could. She worked with Bates to post fliers and place lid collection boxes across campus. She then began gathering, cleaning and drying the lids in her tiny dorm room. As hundreds and then thousands of lids started coming in, she had to develop an elaborate system to dry the lids. “Just opening the door became an issue, forget about getting to the closet!” Catherine said. Boys and Girls Club members also got into the spirit, and one of the Club’s most active teens, Marissa Deschaine, collected, washed and dried a bag filled with lids from her mother’s friends and co-workers. The team ended up collecting more than 4,500 lids to surpass almost 100 other teams and secure the grant to fix up the Clubhouse “We’re blown away by the altruistic spirit we saw in this team. These folks have really shown us how much just a couple of people can accomplish when they work for their communities and their kids,” said Darell Hammond, KaBOOM! CEO and Co-Founder. “Every lid Catherine collected will generate thousands of smiles for years to come, and that’s a wonderful feeling,” Hammond added. Catherine and Andie hit a home run!
 After learning they’d won, Catherine and Andie were asked to help another community in need get a second $50,000 grant from KaBOOM! and Stonyfield to build a playground. After reviewing a list of deserving communities, Catherine and Andie awarded the second prize to the PTA at Laurel Elementary School in Laurel, Maryland, which had been trying to raise money for a playground for over a year. Stonyfield Farm President and CE-Yo Gary Hirshberg said, “I’m so pleased that all the kids will soon enjoy great places to play. The Boys and Girls Club is also enriching its outdoor space by making it more natural and usable. As a nation, we need to do more to make sure that our kids have the chance to get active and healthy, and we need look no further than our backyards and green spaces.” Looking to the future
Both the BGCSM's Auburn/Lewiston Clubhouse and the Laurel Elementary PTA are tracking their efforts to design and build their playspaces on connect.kaboom.org. They’ll be posting pictures, designs and additional information on their projects in the hopes that their experiences will help other communities build playgrounds and playspaces for their children.
Official rules Stonyfield Farm, celebrating its 25th year, is the world's leading organic yogurt company. Its all natural and certified organic yogurt, smoothies, milk, cultured soy, frozen yogurt and ice cream are distributed nationally. The company advocates that healthy food can only come from a healthy planet. Stonyfield donates 10 percent of its profits to efforts that help protect and restore the Earth. For more information about Stonyfield Farm, its products and initiatives, visit www.stonyfield.com. |