FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Oakland, CA (November 20, 2020) · Kids at Franklin Elementary School in Oakland are celebrating today because they will soon have a great new place to play. Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation, Oakland Unified School District (OUSD), The CarMax Foundation and KABOOM!, are working together to increase access to playspaces with the creation of a new, kid-designed playful schoolyard. The playspace, that will be installed in early 2021, will give kids an incredible place to play close to where they live and learn, an opportunity that is often hard to achieve. The playground project was announced today during Franklin Elementary’s virtual school-wide assembly. NBA and Golden State Warriors superstar and co-founder of Eat. Learn. Play Foundation, Stephen Curry, was the first to share with the kids and faculty of Franklin Elementary that they will be getting a new playground, multi-sport court and garden early next year, in anticipation of their return to school in 2021. The students were excited to hear the news of the playground and that it will be designed with inspiration from their ideas and imaginations. As with all KABOOM! playground and multi-sport court projects, kids will be engaged in the design of the playspace by being prompted to draw their dream playspaces. The new garden will align with and enhance Franklin’s existing food access and healthy eating programming. “There is a powerful, positive connection with a child’s success and the recommended daily amount of physical activity,” said Stephen and Ayesha Curry, Co-Founders of Eat. Learn. Play. “This is what we have made Play one of the core pillars for our foundation. For children living in poverty, play is often too hard to come by as their families face many obstacles, ranging from a lack of safe places to play to under-resourced schools that cut recess and physical education. This is why we are so very excited to celebrate the dream playspace that will be coming to Franklin Elementary next year and we can get back to playing once again!” Decades of research and the everyday experiences of kids and families show us that play is an essential part of childhood. Access to quality places to play is vital to kids’ emotional, social and physical health. Kids need it to thrive – especially during stressful times. Too many kids in America, though, have no safe place to play. The isolation brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrates in dramatic effect how valuable playspaces truly are, not only as community gathering places, but as essential civic infrastructure that make neighborhoods strong places where kids can thrive. “This has been a challenging year for our students and teachers, but they have been resilient as they navigate a new way of learning and teaching virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Lusa Lai, Principal of Franklin Elementary School. “We are looking forward to coming together again, and welcoming them back with a new playspace, multi-sport court and garden for all to enjoy.” The playspace at Franklin Elementary School will be high quality and built with the desires of the community in mind because they were involved from the very beginning. This project shows what is possible when partners and communities come together to address the needs of kids, especially in times of crisis. “The CarMax Foundation is proud to partner with Eat. Learn. Play Foundation, OUSD and KABOOM! to create this much-needed playspace for Oakland kids,” said Leslie Parpart, Director of Community Relations at CarMax. “We have a long-standing partnership with KABOOM! to bring innovative play opportunities to kids in communities where our associates live and work, a commitment we are incredibly passionate about. We look forward to breaking ground on this community project and seeing it come to life.” KABOOM! teams up with communities nationwide to build incredible playspaces that give every kid the chance to thrive physically, socially and emotionally, and is committed to ending playspace inequity for kids, for communities, for good. “We know disasters and crises often exacerbate the inequities that communities are already experiencing, and in many communities, kids won’t have a playground to go back to once the COVID-19 crisis is over,” says Lysa Ratliff, Acting CEO of KABOOM!. “We must stop the playspace inequities from becoming even deeper after we get through this pandemic, giving every kid the chance to play and just enjoy being a kid.” To ensure that playgrounds are able to open safely in every community according the latest CDC guidelines, KABOOM! has issued important playground guidance that all communities, playground owner/operators and caregivers can follow. The guidance can be viewed or downloaded at kaboom.org/reopen.
Kids at Franklin Elementary School in Oakland are celebrating today because they will soon have a great new place to play. Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation, Oakland Unified School District (OUSD), The CarMax Foundation and KABOOM!, are working together to increase access to playspaces with the creation of a new, kid-designed playful schoolyard. The playspace, that will be installed in early 2021, will give kids an incredible place to play close to where they live and learn, an opportunity that is often hard to achieve.
The playground project was announced today during Franklin Elementary’s virtual school-wide assembly. NBA and Golden State Warriors superstar and co-founder of Eat. Learn. Play Foundation, Stephen Curry, was the first to share with the kids and faculty of Franklin Elementary that they will be getting a new playground, multi-sport court and garden early next year, in anticipation of their return to school in 2021. The students were excited to hear the news of the playground and that it will be designed with inspiration from their ideas and imaginations. As with all KABOOM! playground and multi-sport court projects, kids will be engaged in the design of the playspace by being prompted to draw their dream playspaces. The new garden will align with and enhance Franklin’s existing food access and healthy eating programming.
“There is a powerful, positive connection with a child’s success and the recommended daily amount of physical activity,” said Stephen and Ayesha Curry, Co-Founders of Eat. Learn. Play. “This is what we have made Play one of the core pillars for our foundation. For children living in poverty, play is often too hard to come by as their families face many obstacles, ranging from a lack of safe places to play to under-resourced schools that cut recess and physical education. This is why we are so very excited to celebrate the dream playspace that will be coming to Franklin Elementary next year and we can get back to playing once again!”
Decades of research and the everyday experiences of kids and families show us that play is an essential part of childhood. Access to quality places to play is vital to kids’ emotional, social and physical health. Kids need it to thrive – especially during stressful times. Too many kids in America, though, have no safe place to play. The isolation brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrates in dramatic effect how valuable playspaces truly are, not only as community gathering places, but as essential civic infrastructure that make neighborhoods strong places where kids can thrive.
“This has been a challenging year for our students and teachers, but they have been resilient as they navigate a new way of learning and teaching virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Lusa Lai, Principal of Franklin Elementary School. “We are looking forward to coming together again, and welcoming them back with a new playspace, multi-sport court and garden for all to enjoy.”
The playspace at Franklin Elementary School will be high quality and built with the desires of the community in mind because they were involved from the very beginning. This project shows what is possible when partners and communities come together to address the needs of kids, especially in times of crisis.
“The CarMax Foundation is proud to partner with Eat. Learn. Play Foundation, OUSD and KABOOM! to create this much-needed playspace for Oakland kids,” said Leslie Parpart, Director of Community Relations at CarMax. “We have a long-standing partnership with KABOOM! to bring innovative play opportunities to kids in communities where our associates live and work, a commitment we are incredibly passionate about. We look forward to breaking ground on this community project and seeing it come to life.”
KABOOM! teams up with communities nationwide to build incredible playspaces that give every kid the chance to thrive physically, socially and emotionally, and is committed to ending playspace inequity for kids, for communities, for good.
“We know disasters and crises often exacerbate the inequities that communities are already experiencing, and in many communities, kids won’t have a playground to go back to once the COVID-19 crisis is over,” says Lysa Ratliff, Acting CEO of KABOOM!. “We must stop the playspace inequities from becoming even deeper after we get through this pandemic, giving every kid the chance to play and just enjoy being a kid.”
To ensure that playgrounds are able to open safely in every community according the latest CDC guidelines, KABOOM! has issued important playground guidance that all communities, playground owner/operators and caregivers can follow. The guidance can be viewed or downloaded at kaboom.org/reopen.
About Eat. Learn. Play. Eat. Learn. Play. founded by three-time NBA champion and two-time MVP Stephen Curry and entrepreneur, host and two-time The New York Times bestselling author Ayesha Curry, seeks to unleash the potential of every child and pave the way for amazing kids and bright futures. Launched in the summer of 2019, Eat. Learn. Play. exists to help improve the lives of kids and families in Oak-land, the Bay Area and across the country. Rooted in three of the most vital pillars for a healthy childhood — nutrition, education and physical activity — Eat. Learn. Play. is designed to help ensure an equal road to success for all kids. The organization believes that children are our future and, with their partners, they are deeply dedicated to empowering them and opening doors for their futures.
About OUSD In California's most diverse city, Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) is dedicated to creating a learning environment where "Every Student Thrives!" More than half of our students speak a non-English language at home. And each of our 81 schools is staffed with talented individuals uniting around a common set of values: Students First, Equity, Excellence, Integrity, Cultural Responsiveness and Joy. We are committed to preparing all students for college, career and community success. To learn more about OUSD's Full Service Community District focused on academic achievement while serving the whole child in safe schools, please visit OUSD.org and follow us @OUSDnews.
About The CarMax Foundation The CarMax Foundation enriches the communities where our associates live and work. Together with CarMax, Inc., the Foundation has donated more than $65 million since 2003. Funding programs are made available through a portion of CarMax, Inc.'s pre-tax profits. CarMax, the nation's largest retailer of used cars, revolutionized the automotive retail industry by driving integrity, honesty and transparency in every interaction. The company offers a truly personalized experience with the option for customers to do as much, or as little, online and in-store as they want. CarMax also provides a variety of vehicle delivery methods, including home delivery, contactless curbside pickup, and appointments in its stores. During the fiscal year ending February 29, 2020, CarMax sold more than 830,000 used cars and more than 465,000 wholesale vehicles at its in-store auctions. CarMax has 220 stores, over 25,000 Associates, and is proud to have been recognized for 16 consecutive years as one of the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For®. For more information, visit www.carmax.com.
About KABOOM!KABOOM! is the national nonprofit committed to ending playspace inequity – the reality that quality places to play are not available to every child, especially in communities of color. Since 1996, KABOOM! has partnered with kids and communities to create or transform 17,000+ playspaces and ensure that nearly 12 million kids have equitable access to the crucial benefits and opportunities that playspaces offer. In 2022, KABOOM! launched the 25 in 5 Initiative to End Playspace Inequity, the $250 million plan to accelerate its mission in 25 high-priority locations over five years. Learn more at kaboom.org and join the conversation at twitter.com/kaboom, facebook.com/kaboom, instagram.com/kaboom and LinkedIn.