WHAT: More than 200 volunteers from Amway and D.A. Blodgett-St. John’s, organizers from KaBOOM! and residents of the local community will join forces on Friday, June 8 to build a new playground at the D.A. Blodgett-St. John’s. The new playground’s design is based on drawings created by children who participated in a Design Day event in April.    

WHY: Children today spend less time playing outside than their predecessors. This is 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 children’s physical, social and cognitive development. Children need a place to play every day in order to be active and healthy, something KaBOOM! has been committed to since 1996.

The new playground will provide the children at the St. John’s Home Campus with a safe place to play. Currently, the children served by D.A. Blodgett-St. John’s do not have a playground at the site and there are no others within walking distance. 

The playground will be the 14th built by KaBOOM! and Amway and the 10th built in Grand Rapids. The project is one of more than 150 playground builds KaBOOM! will lead across the country in 2012 in an effort to provide a great place to play within walking distance of every child in America. 

WHEN: Friday, June 8
             8:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.    Kick off ceremony and volunteer deployment
             11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.    Best viewing of playground construction
             1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.    Final construction phase and adjustments
             2:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.    Ribbon-cutting ceremony to dedicate new play area

WHERE: D.A. Blodgett-St. John's
                St. John’s Home Campus
                2355 Knapp St. NE
                Grand Rapids, MI  49505

WHO: State Representative Brandon Dillon (D-75);Grand Rapids City Manager Greg Sundstrom
            Grand Rapids City Commissioner Ruth Kelly
            Kent County Commissioner Candace Chivis
            Kent County Commissioner Carol Hennessy
            Hundreds of volunteers from the community

VISUALS: Before and after shots of the siteVolunteers assembling brightly colored playground equipment
                   Volunteers moving 56,700 square feet of safety surfacing by hand
                   Ribbon-cutting ceremony to dedicate the playground

D.A. Blodgett-St. John’s Home

D.A. Blodgett-St. John’s is a 125-year-old accredited agency that works in partnership with the community providing comprehensive services to children and families, including Big Brothers Big Sisters, foster care, adoption, and family support, as well as, residential treatment and emergency shelter care at St. John’s Home. By law, we are unable to publish any images of children in our care. Please refrain from taking photos or videos of children’s faces if you attend D.A. Blodgett – St. John’s events.

Amway

Amway has a longstanding history of sharing with the community, both through volunteer efforts and charitable contributions. The Amway One by One Campaign for Children rallies the resources of Amway distributors and employees around the world to make a difference in the lives of children in every market where the company conducts business. Since the Amway One by One program launched in 2003, it has provided hope and opportunity to 9.5 million children and donated more than $166 million to children's causes worldwide. The number of employee and distributor volunteer hours logged since 2003 totals 2.5 million.  For corporate inquiries call (616) 787-7565 or visit globalnews.amway.com. For more information on Amway One By One, visit www.amway.com/amwayonebyone.   

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! in 1996 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 89,000 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.