PLAYGROUND BUILDING—Several volunteers teamed with professionals to build a KaBOOM! Playground in Homewood. This was the first of a series of playgrounds to be built throughout Pittsburgh to help children be more active. (Photos by J.L. Martello).
More than 200 volunteers from Homewood Children’s Village, organizers from KaBOOM! and residents of the local community joined forces recently to build new playgrounds in Homewood, and various other communities. The new playgrounds’ designs are based on drawings created by children who participated in a Design Day event in February. The construction took all day as volunteers and professionals worked together.
The ribbon cutting took place at Homewood Children’s Village, 7227 Kelly St. Welcoming the hundreds of volunteers from around western Pa, were state Rep. Ed Gainey, and City Councilman Rev. Ricky Burgess.
The reason for the playgrounds, according to KaBOOM, is today’s kids spend less time playing outside than any previous generation, in part because only one in five children live within walking distance of a park or playground. This play deficit is having profound consequences for kids physically, socially and cognitively. Children need a place to play every day in order to be active and healthy, something KaBOOM! has been committed to since 1996.
The Homewood playground will provide more than 500 children in the neighborhood with a safe place to play.
The playground was the first in a series of playground construction projects in the Pittsburgh area supported by an $800,000 grant from The Heinz Endowments. The project is one of more than 150 playgrounds built by KaBOOM! that will extend across the country in 2013 in an effort to provide a great place to play within walking distance of every child in America.
The Homewood Children’s Village is a non-profit organization whose mission is to simultaneously improve the lives of Homewood’s children while reweaving the fabric of the community in which they live.
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