Child-Designed Playground will Eventually Serve 7,500 Children and their Families
EAST CLEVELAND, OH, July 9, 2011 /PRNewswire/ - Children in East Cleveland received a brand new playground today thanks to the effort of more than 200 volunteers from ForestersTM, a life insurance provider committed to the well-being of families, the City of East Cleveland Parks and Recreation, East Cleveland Park Association and non-profit KaBOOM!. The new playground will serve 7,500 children and their families in the East Cleveland community for years to come. Planning for the playground began at a Design Day event held in May when local children and community leaders met with organizers from KaBOOM! and Foresters to design their dream playground. The children's drawings were then used to create the final playground design.
"Foresters shares its financial strength with its members and communities where they live, such as East Cleveland," said Bruce Burak, Foresters National Sales Manager. "Playgrounds are an ideal place for families to get to know other families and build strong communities. This new playground at Hawley Park will provide opportunities families to spend quality time together for years to come."
Since 2006, Foresters has invested over $7 million with KaBOOM! and built or planned almost 100 playgrounds across the U.S. and Canada. Over their 15 year lifespan, these playgrounds will provide more than 2.6 million children and their families with the opportunity to spend quality time together. Foresters is a KaBOOM! National Partner and a founding member of the KaBOOM! Leadership Circle - a group of organizations providing long-term guidance and support to KaBOOM! and its mission.
"I would like to thank Foresters because for the first time in years, there is a safe place for families to connect and play," said Greg Bell, City of East Cleveland Parks and Recreation Director. "The entire community is grateful for this new playground and it's truly a wonderful addition to the community."
The playground at Hawley Park will provide 7,500 children and their families in the East Cleveland community with a great place to play and engage in healthy family time. In less than eight hours, the child-designed playground was built from scratch by hundreds of volunteers from Foresters, the City of East Cleveland Parks and Recreation, East Cleveland Park Association and the surrounding community. In addition, children and families spent the day playing games and participating in arts and crafts activities.
"We are very excited to assist the City of East Cleveland Parks and Recreation department in building a playground for the children of East Cleveland," said Gordon Hay, President of the East Cleveland ParksAssociation. "Play is very important to the development of children today."
Thanks to the work of Foresters, the City of East Cleveland Parks and Recreation, East Cleveland Park Association and KaBOOM!, children and their families now have a 2,600 square-foot playground to call home that includes features such as a Rocky Ridge Climber, a Rope Bridge and a Zigzag slide.
About City of East Cleveland Parks and Recreation
The City of East Cleveland Parks and Recreation department is home of the World's First Billionaire John D. Rockefeller and is celebrating 100 years this year (1911-2011).The City of East Cleveland Parks and Recreation Department is the primary provider of Parks and Recreational opportunities for East Cleveland residents. The Department has been in existence since 1969.
About East Cleveland Park Association
The East Cleveland Parks Association is a private nonprofit citizens' organization with a board of trustees comprised of community residents and other people with special skills needed to achieve the association mission. The mission of the East Cleveland Parks Association is to work in cooperation with the City of East Cleveland Parks and Recreation department to use the city's public open spaces to improve the lives of city residents.
About Foresters
Founded in 1874 as a fraternal benefit society, ForestersTM champions the well-being of families through quality life insurance, unique member benefits and inspiring community activities. Foresters shares its financial strength with more than 835,000 members in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. Unity Life of Canada¹, a wholly owned subsidiary of Foresters, represents Foresters in Canada. For more information, please visit www.foresters.com.
ForestersTM is a trademark of The Independent Order of Foresters, a fraternal benefit society, Toronto, Canada M3C 1T9.
¹Unity Life of Canada, a Foresters company, is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Independent Order of Foresters
About KaBOOM!
KaBOOM! is the national non-profit dedicated to saving play. 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. To fight this Play Deficit, social entrepreneur Darell Hammond founded non-profit KaBOOM! 15 years ago in Washington, D.C. with a vision of creating a great place to play within walking distance of every child in America. Since then, KaBOOM! has mapped over 85,000 places to play, built more than 2,000 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 The New York Times Best Seller KaBOOM!: How One Man Built a Movement to Save Play. The book details how businesses and communities can work together to save play for children across the country. All author proceeds support KaBOOM!. In addition to building playgrounds, KaBOOM! National Partners, such as ForestersTM support KaBOOM! national programs, which have a nation-wide impact on the health and well-being of children and communities. KaBOOM! national programs spread the message that play is critical to the development of children and create solutions to address the play deficit that currently exists in thousands of communities nationwide. ForestersTM is also a member of the KaBOOM! Leadership Circle, whose members provide long-term guidance and support for the organization and our mission. To learn more how KaBOOM! and our partners are fighting the play deficit, go to www.kaboom.org.
SOURCE Foresters
