Designed by Kids, Built by Volunteers: Blue Island Park District, Friends of Blue Island Parks, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois and KaBOOM! Saving Play by Building New Playground in Just One Day

WHAT:

More than 200 volunteers from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois, the Blue Island Park District, Friends of Blue Island Parks, organizers from KaBOOM! and residents of the local community will join forces on Saturday, July 30 to build a new playground at Kiddie Corral. The new playground's design is based on drawings created by children who participated in a Design Day event in June.

WHY:

Today's kids spend less time playing outside than any previous generation in part because only 1-in-5 children live within walking distance of a park or playground. This Play Deficit is having profound consequences for kids physically as well as mentally and socially. Children desperately need a place to play every day in order to be active and healthy. KaBOOM! is a national non-profit organization dedicated to saving play. For 15 years, KaBOOM! has been fighting the Play Deficit and saving play by ensuring there is a great place to play within walking distance of every child.

The new playground will provide more than 600 children in the Blue Island community with a safe place to play. Currently, the children only have old, out-dated equipment to enjoy, which will be replaced by the new playground.

The playground is the ninth built by KaBOOM! and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois in an effort to fight the Play Deficit and save play. The project is one of more than 150 playground builds KaBOOM! will lead across the country in 2011 in an effort to provide a great place to play within walking distance of every child in America.

WHEN:

WHERE:

Kiddie Corral
121st & Highland Ave
Blue Island, IL 60406

WHO:

Illinois District 27 State Representative Monique Davis Hundreds of volunteers from the community

VISUALS:

• Before and after shots of the site
• Volunteers assembling brightly colored playground equipment
• Volunteers moving 43,740 square feet of safety surfacing by hand
• Ribbon-cutting ceremony to dedicate the playground

Blue Island Park District
Celebrating over 100 years of excellent service to the city of Blue Island, the Blue Island Park District and its staff pride themselves on providing quality recreational activities for the residents of Blue Island. The Blue Island Park District's long term goal will be to provide quality playgrounds and parks where every child no matter their background can find a place to explore and participate in recreational play.

Friends of Blue Island Parks
To speak of an event or program at the Blue Island Park District and not assume the great members of the Friends of the Park are in some way involved would be unheard of. Made up of mainly parents and friends, Friends of Blue Island Parks is a hard working group volunteers that the staff of the Blue Island Park District have learned to love.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois is dedicated to helping Illinois become a healthier place to live, work and most importantly, play! As part of our Healthy Kids, Healthy Families Initiative, Blue Cross spearheads, sponsors and participates in a number of activities that encourages kids to eat right and be healthy. In 2011, Blue Cross Illinois is working with KaBOOM! to build 3 more new playgrounds in our state, bringing our total number to 11 new playgrounds in just 2 years! Our goal is for our playground build efforts to increase physical activity for children and their families, and to be built in a safe environment.

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!. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., KaBOOM! also has offices in Chicago and San Mateo, Calif. For more information, visit www.kaboom.org .

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT:

William Cazares, Blue Island Park District, 708-388-6421, wcazares@blueislandparks.org
Mary Ann Schultz, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois, 312-653-6701 maryann_schultz@bcbsil.com
Mike Vietti, KaBOOM!, 785-320-2137
mvietti@kaboom.org