Playground to enhance family well-being
BENSENVILLE, IL, Aug. 4, 2012 /PRNewswire/ - A dream is now a reality for
children in Bensenville as their drawings were turned into a new
playground today. In less than eight hours, the play space was built at
W.A. Johnson School with the help of more than 200 volunteers from
ForestersTM, Bensenville School District 2 and non-profit KaBOOM!. The new
playground will serve 10,500 children and their families in the
community for years to come.
"Foresters believes in providing opportunities for families to spend
quality time together," said Bruce Burak, Foresters National Sales
Manager, US. "A playground is an important piece for the revitalization
of a community. Not only does it provide a first step towards keeping
children healthy, but it's a safe, central location for the entire
neighborhood to get together."
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.
Since 2006, Foresters has invested over $7 million with KaBOOM! with
almost 100 playgrounds built or planned 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 an 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.
"This has been an amazing community project, with so many parents and
residents volunteering and so many local businesses also stepping up to
assist in providing supplies and support for the volunteers," said
Superintendent James E. Stelter. "We were thrilled to be accepted for a
project with Foresters and KaBOOM! and now the entire community can
enjoy the benefits of this special playground."
Thanks to the work of Foresters, Bensenville School District 2 and
KaBOOM!, children and their families now have a 2,400 square-foot
playground to call home that includes features such as a Slither Slide,
Rockblocks Climbing Wall and Transfer Station.
About Bensenville School District 2/W.A. Johnson School
BSD2 serves 2,100 students from Bensenville, Wood Dale and Addison with
three elementary schools and one middle school. Construction is nearing
completion on a $23 million addition and renovation to Johnson School.
When complete later this fall, Mohawk School will merge with Johnson,
and the district will have two elementary schools and one middle
school. This playground project is one way the District is hoping to
bring the school community together as we prepare to merge schools. It
is also a topping-off project to one of two new school buildings in
Bensenville.
About Foresters
Foresters™ is a life insurance provider with a difference. The
fraternal benefit society, founded in 1874, supports family well-being
through quality products, unique member benefits and inspiring
community activities. Foresters shares its financial strength with
almost 950,000 members in Canada, the United States and the United
Kingdom. For more information, visit foresters.com.
Foresters™ is the trade name and a trademark of The Independent Order of
Foresters, a fraternal benefit society, 789 Don Mills Road, Toronto,
Canada M3C 1T9; its subsidiaries are licensed to use this mark.
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! 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.
SOURCE Foresters