DESIGNED BY KIDS, BUILT BY VOLUNTEERS:
CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, GREATER RICHMOND FIT4KIDS, THE CARMAX FOUNDATION AND KaBOOM! TO BUILD PLAYGROUND IN JUST ONE DAY FOR CHILDREN
Next Friday, June 7, The CarMax Foundation, KaBOOM!, Fit4Kids and Chesterfield County will help save play by building a playground from start to finish at Bensley Park. This build launches a $4.1 million partnership between The CarMax Foundation and KaBOOM! We will be building 30 playgrounds across the country in the next three years.
More than 200 volunteers from CarMax, Chesterfield County Department of Parks and Recreation, Chesterfield County Public Schools, Greater Richmond Fit4Kids, organizers from KaBOOM! and residents of the North Chesterfield community will join forces on Friday, June 7 to build a new playground at Bensley Park. The new playground’s design is based on drawings created by children who participated in a Design Day event in April. The project is in conjunction with a similar playground build taking place in Los Angeles on June 7. These two playgrounds are the first of 30 playgrounds The CarMax Foundation and KaBOOM! will build across the country by the end of 2015.
Why?
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 new playground will provide more than 900 children in the North Chesterfield community with a safe place to play. Currently, the children served by Bensley Park only have an old, outdated playground to enjoy.
The Richmond playground build, alongside another build in Los Angeles the same day, is the official coast-to-coast launch of The CarMax Foundation’s national KaBOOM! partnership. Through this $4.1 million partnership, The CarMax Foundation and KaBOOM! will build 30 playgrounds across the United States by the end of 2015, benefitting 100,000 children. The CarMax Foundation supports the organization’s effort to fulfill its vision of a great place to play within walking distance of every child in America.
In addition to the community-built playground, The CarMax Foundation is donating an Imagination Playground in a Cart™ to the YWCA of Richmond. A breakthrough playspace concept designed by architect David Rockwell to encourage child-directed, unstructured free play with reconfigurable loose parts, Imagination Playground in a Cart™ allows children to constantly change their environment and design their own course of play. The Imagination Playground in a Cart™ will be available for children to enjoy during the playground build.
WHEN
Friday, June 7
9:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. Kick off ceremony and volunteer deployment
Noon to 2:00 p.m. Best viewing of playground construction
2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Final construction phase and adjustments
3:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Ribbon-cutting ceremony to dedicate new play area
(Note: all times approximate)WHERE
Bensley Park
2900 Drewry’s Bluff Rd
North Chesterfield, VA 23237WHO
Hundreds of volunteers from the community
Chesterfield County Parks and Recreation
The mission of the Chesterfield County Parks and Recreation Department is to provide a comprehensive system of leisure programs, educational opportunities and recreational facilities for all citizens while conserving and protecting environmental, historical and cultural resources. The department works to promote community involvement in developing and providing leisure services, and is committed to customer service excellence, affordability, equal opportunity, and safety and accessibility for all citizens.
Chesterfield County Parks and Recreation
The reputation of the public schools often inspires families to make their home in Chesterfield County. But don’t just take our word for it: SchoolMatch consistently rates Chesterfield County Public Schools as having precisely the balance parents seek. Chesterfield residents say they are happy with their choice: In a 2010 survey, nearly 86 percent of residents rated Chesterfield schools as excellent or good. Is it any wonder that for the sixth time Chesterfield was named one of the 100 Best Communities for Young People by America’s Promise Alliance? Guided by the Design for Excellence 2020 strategic plan, the school system is working to achieve its vision of providing an engaging and relevant education that prepares every student to adapt and thrive in a rapidly changing world.
Greater Richmond Fit 4 Kids
Greater Richmond Fit4Kids is a regional non-profit dedicated to improving children’s health and wellness by increasing physical activity and promoting healthy eating. The organization is focused on reducing and preventing childhood obesity in the greater Richmond region. Fit4Kids spearheads the regional childhood obesity coalition, The Greater Richmond Coalition for Healthy Children. Fit4Kids’ three school based programs – Wellness Integration, Recess Coaching, and Learning Gardens – have reached more than 3,700 children since their launch in September 2012.
The CarMax Foundation
The CarMax Foundation is designed to enrich the communities where our associates live and work and has donated more than $15 million since 2003. Funding programs are made available through a portion of CarMax, Inc.’s pre-tax profits from prior years. CarMax, a member of the FORTUNE 500 and the S&P 500, and one of the FORTUNE 2013 “100 Best Companies to Work For,” is the nation’s largest retailer of used cars. Headquartered in Richmond, Va., CarMax currently operates 121 used car superstores in 61 markets. The CarMax consumer offer is structured around four customer benefits: low, no-haggle prices; a broad selection; high quality vehicles; and customer-friendly service. During the 12 months that ended February 28, 2013, the company retailed 447,728 used cars and sold 324,779 wholesale vehicles at its in-store auctions. For more information on The CarMax Foundation, visit http://www.carmaxcares.com.
KaBOOM!
KaBOOM! is the national non-profit dedicated to giving kids the childhood they deserve by bringing play to those who need it most. Children today spend less time playing outdoors than any previous generation, a fact that is having disastrous consequences on their health, achievement levels, and overall well-being. Social entrepreneur Darell Hammond founded non-profit KaBOOM! in 1996 in Washington, D.C. with a vision of creating a great place to play within walking distance of every child in America because children need to play actively every day at home, in school and in their communities. Since then, KaBOOM! has mapped over 90,000 places to play, built more than 2,300 playgrounds, and successfully advocated for play policies in hundreds of cities across the country. KaBOOM! also provides communities with online tools to self-organize and take action to support play on both a local and national level. Hammond chronicles the founding of the organization and the importance of the cause of play in his TheNew York Times Best Seller KaBOOM!: A Movement to Save Play, now out in paperback. The book details how businesses and communities can work together to save play for children across the country. All author proceeds support KaBOOM!. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., KaBOOM! also has an office in San Mateo, Calif. For more information, visit www.kaboom.org.
