Retrospective on a Playground

Today our Reedy Cares representative, Chris Reynolds, tells us more about the yearly KaBoom! initiative and how anyone can get involved in this great cause:

What is one of your favorite playground memories from childhood? Now imagine what it would have been like if you never had a playground to grow up on.

One of my favorite memories growing up was being able to run out the back of my grandmother’s house and be at the local park with my cousins. We would gather every Easter and the kids would be gone all day playing on the swings, merry-go-round, slides, and monkey bars.

Did you know that in 2010, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported that only 1 out of 5 children in the United States lives within a half-mile of a park or playground? It has also been shown that not having a safe place to engage in fun play can have harmful physical, intellectual, social, and emotional repercussions for children.

I could not say how I would be today if I never was able to have those Easter memories with my family at the local playground. Could you imagine not having a playground to grow up on?

For this reason, among others, Reedy Cares has teamed up with KaBoom! to help out a community each year in building a brand new safe and local playground. Every second spent on a KaBoom! playground build is changing a child’s life. KaBoom! is being held on May 19, 2012 at St. Gull in Chicago and, with the help of Reedy Cares, 200 volunteers will embrace a lot of hard work to transform an empty school lot into a safe and fun environment for kids to play and grow.

Parts Town is just one of the many helping hands in trying to change a child’s life through Reedy Cares and every year we achieve this goal. If you are interested in finding out how you can contribute to the KaBoom! effort in your own community, visit their website at www.kaboom.org.