Propagating Playgrounds Across the Land

At 8 in the morning, the dirt lot was barren, with no hint of what was to come.

In the adjacent parking lot sat a Roadway truck loaded with red, yellow and blue playground equipment and lots of tools--from ratchets to hammers, screwdrivers to wheelbarrows. A cadre of volunteers waited for their instructions.

“The idea is really modeled on an Amish barn-raising,” said Darell Hammond, chief executive of KaBOOM, a Chicago-based nonprofit organization. The group links communities in need with corporate sponsors to fund and build safe playgrounds all over the country. “Usually at the beginning, [volunteers] see the truck full of equipment and say, ‘We’re going to build all this today?’”

Despite their doubts, they do. This day they would build a playground for Phillips Preschool, based at Phillips Temple Christian Methodist Episcopal Church in South-Central Los Angeles.

The morning of the “build,” as KaBOOM members call the construction blitz, began with volunteers divided up into teams named after flavors of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.

The Nutty Waffle Cones would grab paintbrushes. Cherry Garcia and KaBerry KaBOOM would need screwdrivers and levels. Members of the New York Super Fudge Chunk team would need wheelbarrows and shovels to start moving and shoveling 125 cubic yards of mulch that would cover the bottom of the playground. A representative from Playworld Systems, the manufacturer of the playground equipment, was there to oversee the work.

After a pep talk and safety instructions, volunteers were sent to work. And by 11:40, a bright yellow slide--the first obvious sign of a playground--had been erected to the cheers of all present.

The project, held in December, brought together about 150 volunteers and church and community members of all ages and races.

Girl Scouts Help

With the Project

“I’m just really overwhelmed,” said the church’s co-pastor, Thembekila Coleman-Smart, of the number of volunteers. Three members of Girl Scout Troop 532 from La Mirada helped paint a storage shed and a shelter over a sandbox.

“It’s kind of cool building a playground,” said 12-year-old Katlin Noble, who, with the other girls, sported head-to-toe paint splotches. “It’s nice to be able to give something to the preschoolers who will play here.”

The playground for the church school, which is tuition-free for low-income families, was number 332 for KaBOOM. The organization has helped build a half-dozen other playgrounds in the Los Angeles area during its six-year existence.

KaBOOM was founded by Hammond, who grew up in an orphanage.

“I have been the beneficiary of goodwill and good deeds,” he said. “I decided that I would do the same for other children.”

According to the organization, safe and accessible playgrounds are critical to the development of the nation’s children and can help build social networks within a community. KaBOOM representatives, who are certified playground inspectors, go out to each site. They serve as the project managers and inspect all the work to ensure that every nut and bolt is properly placed.

“We do for playgrounds what Habitat for Humanity does for houses,” Hammond said, adding that bringing a playground to fruition takes more than just one day. Phillips Temple Church was asked to raise $5,000 to contribute to the cost of the equipment, and had to meet with representatives from 7-Eleven and Ben & Jerry’s Homemade, the playground’s corporate sponsors, to help plan the site.

Ben & Jerry’s has been involved with KaBOOM for four years, sponsoring playgrounds and even naming one of its ice cream flavors, KaBerry KaBOOM, after the organization.

About 70 volunteers at the installation of the playground were 7-Eleven employees or franchisees and their families, said Cynthia Davis, vice president of one of the company’s divisions.

Bob Reeves, a facility manager for 7-Eleven, had six other members of his family helping with the project.

“It was a good experience to bring out the youngsters in the family to teach them about community service,” said Norma Meisner, Reeves’ mother-in-law. Altogether, the family helped paint, shovel mulch and assemble the teeter-totter.

Job Is Finished

Within 6 Hours

By 2 p.m., just six hours after the job began, the work was finished. A brightly colored playground with slide, swings and teeter-totter replaced the dilapidated equipment that stood there just days before.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony closed out the day, and proud but weary workers returned to their homes. But for the community, it was just the start.

“Instead of just being reserved for the preschool, this will benefit the whole community,” Coleman-Smart said.

The church plans to open the now-gated playground to the neighborhood several days a week and hold cultural celebrations in the picnic area there.

Coleman-Smart said that since the playground was built, she has sensed a change of attitudes among church members, as well as a renewed sense of hope.

“People are so excited and energized, they already want to do another project,” she said. “Some people here were believing the hype that everything was going wrong and that nothing could be done. But this has been a dream come true for everybody.”

KaBOOM will be facilitating the construction of two more playgrounds in the Los Angeles area in 2002, and is seeking recommendations for sites where new playgrounds are needed.

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For information about helping with a project, or to make a site recommendation, check KaBOOM’s Web site at www .Kaboom.org. or call KaBOOM headquarters at (312) 822-5871.