Cutler Bay, Fla. – Before the sun sets on Saturday, June 12, the 700 children who attend Gulfstream Elementary School in Cutler Bay will receive a great new place to play.

The new playground will be fully assembled from scratch in less than eight hours with the help of more than 200 volunteers from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and Gulfstream Elementary, organizers from KaBOOM! and residents of the Cutler Bay community. Volunteers will gather for a kickoff ceremony at 8:30 a.m. and will complete the playground project in time for a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 2:30 p.m.

“KaBOOM! playground builds inspire residents to put their passion for their community into action, furthering Knight Foundation’s focus on informed and engaged communities,” said Damian Thorman, national program director for Knight Foundation. “We hope the interest sparked on this playground drives residents to become engaged in future efforts to better their community.”

Currently, the children only have old, out-dated equipment to play on, which will be removed to make way for the new playground. Planning for the playground began at a Design Day event held in April when local children and community leaders met with organizers from KaBOOM! and Knight Foundation to design their dream playground. The children’s drawings were then used to create the final playground design.

“The playground is an essential part of any school and that is why we are so grateful that are dream playground has become a reality,” said Susan Lyle, Gulfstream Elementary Principal. “Our new playground will provide opportunities for all children to play together side by side.” 

The playground is one of 13 to be built by KaBOOM! and Knight Foundation this year, and one of more than 150 builds KaBOOM! will lead across the country in 2010 in an effort to provide a great place to play within walking distance of every child in America.

In addition to the community-built playground, the new play area will also include an Imagination Playground in a Box – a breakthrough playspace concept designed by architect David Rockwell to encourage child-directed, unstructured free play. Complete with custom designed blue foam blocks and other loose parts, and elements that encourage sand and water play, Imagination Playground in a Box allows children to constantly reconfigure their environment and design their own course of play.

About Gulfstream Elementary/Miami-Dade County Public Schools

Gulfstream Elementary is a Title one school with over 600 students. We have a large Special Education population that services children with varying exceptionalities such as Autism, Deaf and Hard of Hearing, as well as Physically and Intellectually Disabled children. Our goal is to provide a fully accessible and sensory-rich playground for children of all abilities while providing a place where compassion & acceptance flourish. For more information, visit gulfstreamelm.dadeschools.net.

About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation advances journalism in the digital age and invests in the vitality of communities where the Knight brothers owned newspapers. Knight Foundation focuses on projects that promote informed and engaged communities and lead to transformational change. For more, visit www.knightfoundation.org.

About KaBOOM!
Headquartered in Washington, D.C., KaBOOM! is a national non-profit organization dedicated to saving play. Through community building, the company is focused on giving every child in America a great place to play within walking distance. Since 1996, KaBOOM! has used its innovative community-build model to bring together business and community interests to construct more than 1,700 new playgrounds, skate parks, sports fields and ice rinks across North America. KaBOOM! also offers a variety of resources, including an online community, free online trainings, grants, publications and the KaBOOM! National Campaign for Play, which includes Playful City USA and Playmakers – a national network of individual advocates for play. KaBOOM! also has offices in Chicago and San Mateo, Calif. For more information, visit www.kaboom.org.

About Imagination Playground LLC
Imagination Playground is a breakthrough playspace concept designed to encourage child-directed, unstructured “free play,” the kind of play that experts say is critical to a child’s intellectual, social, physical and emotional development. With a focus on loose parts, complimented by a manipulable environment and Play Associates, it offers a changing array of elements that allow children to constantly reconfigure their environment and to design their own course of play. Giant foam blocks, mats, wagons, fabric and crates overflow with creative potential for children to play, dream, build and explore endless possibilities. Imagination Playground was conceived and designed by internationally acclaimed architect David Rockwell. His firm, Rockwell Group, has partnered with KaBOOM!, the leading national non-profit organization dedicated to bringing play to kids everywhere. Through this mission-driven partnership, we are committed to bringing Imagination Playground to communities across the country. For more information, visit www.imaginationplayground.org.

CONTACT:
Kimberly Daniels, Gulfstream Elementary, 305-235-6811, [email protected]
Marc Fest, Knight Foundation, 305-908-2677, [email protected]
Mike Vietti, KaBOOM!, 202-464-6076, [email protected]