Reedy Industries and KaBoom!

This year’s new playground build will be May 14, 2011 at St. Bruno’s church on the south side of Chicago. Working together, Reedy Industries and KaBoom! can help change a child’s life. This is my second year doing this, and now I am fortunate enough to be behind the scenes. Each year KaBoom! gives the children of the new build site a blank sheet of paper and a mound of crayons and they are asked to draw what they would like on their playground. You get to see their imaginations at work. From there, the volunteers from Reedy and KaBoom! are able to take the children’s ideas and speak with the parents of the community and form a solid idea of what we should build. The smiles on the parents’ faces are worth the upcoming work.

Last year was my first experience with KaBoom! and a playground build. I arrived on a chilly morning and found an empty lot. The only features were concrete, mud, and a gigantic mound of mulch. Side note – mulch and I are not friends. The next thing that caught my eye was exactly how many people showed up to help. There was just a sea of people that were eager and willing to start the build. The looks on the kids’ faces in anticipation of their soon-to-be new playground was electrifying. These kids don’t have a safe place to play and adequately expel their energy and have fun. Most of the time, the closest playground is miles away. These playgrounds are volunteer- and community-built.

At each build there are volunteer build captains that are in charge of directing the other volunteers on the different tasks that are necessary to get the entire job done. We have builders for the garden boxes, dirt distribution, concrete mixing and loading, assembling the playground parts, mulch, and quite a few other tasks. Everyone has one common goal and that’s to build something that will last for these kids for many years to come.

Mind you, I wasn’t too sure about this large task ahead of me and I thought that I might die beforehand. As the day went on, I never thought about how tough the tasks were. The day blew by, partly because of the great people around me. You get to meet a great array of people at the builds. Mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters of the community, and the 100 volunteers from Reedy as well, help make this cause a reality and in turn it made me feel a sense of accomplishment. By the end of the day we made something truly awesome out of nothing. We helped make these children’s dreams come true.

KaBoom! is dedicated to providing a safe playground for children and families. They build dreams and create opportunities for these kids. It’s an amazing cause and I can’t wait for May 14, 2011. I strongly urge for people to sign up and volunteer for this. It’s more than just one day and a few hours of work. It’s something that we’re a part of for a lifetime. It’s all worth it in the end and I am very happy to be a part of it.