Check out our facebook page FUN FOR EVERYONE... AND www.funforeveryoneplayground.weebly.com

We have been working hard fundraising monthly. We are in the process of working on a chicken BBQ for the month of April. Each month we hold a CiCi's Pizza night from 5-8pm at our Harrisonburg CiCi's Pizza. Cici's gives FUN FOR EVERYONE 10% of there sales that night, so far since October 2010 Cici's Pizza has helped us raise $250.00 THANK YOU CICI'S PIZZA!!! Come out the first Tuesday of every month until June and join us for some pizza and fun...
We will be scrap booking again on the second Monday of every month from 5-9pm at the Timberville Moose Lodge. THANK YOU Timberville Moose Lodge for allowing us to use your building free of charge. So far scra booking we have raised right around $600.00 for the playground..A VERY BIG THANK YOU to Tonya Sheridan, our Close to Heart Consultant who has worked very hard to help raise money for the playground...

On accessibleplayground.net: Wordless Wednesday--a pictorial tour of Clemy Playground, a great accessible playground in McClean, VI http://www.accessibleplayground.net/?p=2738

Have you gotten your copy of our 2012 play equipment catalog yet? View it online or request a printed copy at http://www.bciburke.com/digitalcatalog.html.

To help celebrate the two-anniversary of Let's Move, First Lady Michelle Obama battled Jimmy Fallon in a game of Tug of War.

They also competed in push-ups, hula hooping, dodgeball, and potato sack race battles.

The segment aired last night, but you can watch the entire battle on the Late Night with Jimmy Fallon website.

Spoiler alert! Jimmy ends up on the floor crying in defeat. (see bigger picture)

Updates to the Map of Play

We've recently made some changes to the Map of Play that we hope everyone enjoys.

First, we had some trouble with spammers a few weeks back that we've taken care of without taking away the ability for people to comment or add pictures to playgrounds without a KaBOOM! account. This will make for cleaner, better mapping community and will make the Map of Play less prone to comments about handbags (a frequent topic of spammers, for some reason).

Next, we recently rebuilt our "browse" pages on the Map of Play. These pages were built a few years back to help people that wanted to see a list of playgrounds in a city instead of using our map. These pages had problems keeping up with new, edited, and deleted listings. Well, that is no longer the case. In addition to browsing by state and city, you can now browse by country. If you've ever wanted to know more about the playgrounds in Switzerland, well here's your chance.

Finally, we have a new, Community Spotlight area on the Map's main page. We will feature people that are helping us map all the parks, playspaces, and playgrounds in America (or just adding really good content). First up in the Spotlight is AngieSix.

Visit the Map of Play to see all of these new changes in action!

Is it a bus, a bike, or both?! "The bicycle school bus (BCO in Dutch) is powered entirely by children and the one adult driver..." Read the full story about this cool, new bus on Fast Company's Co.Exist blog.

I dig the new profile photo!

Hi all,

I’m Zach, Customer Relations Manager at Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s PreventObesity.net project, a site designed to connect those working to reverse childhood obesity with others working in the movement as well as those supporting the movement. We offer FREE communications tools to individuals working to make changes to policies and environments to reduce childhood obesity; we call them Network Leaders. If you’re organizing others to reverse this epidemic you can register as a Leader at http://www.preventobesity.net/leader_blog. Full Leader criteria can be found here: http://www.preventobesity.net/leader-criteria.

Leader registration is complimentary; we’re here to help you connect with others in the movement achieve your goals.

Educational theory has proven the importance of play at the preschool level. 3-5 year olds are still concrete-operational learners whereby the physical and experiential aspect of play touches children's innate understanding at this age. Play deepens the experience. It is also an avenue for young learners to gain important Kindergarten Readiness skills in a developmentally appropriate fashion. Gross motor, fine motor, social-emotional, and cognitive skills are developed and fine tuned through play. Through play, the imagination is activated resulting in creativity and a solid foundation of future success.

NaturePlay 1678 is our featured playground of the day, a fun way to fit nature oriented play into a smaller budget or space! Learn more.

I am currently working with a great Community Partner in San Francisco, and they have implemented an awesome service learning activity! The kids at this pre-school have been learning about healthy living, and have started doing cooking activities. For the last week, the students have worked really hard to prepare some healthy snacks for the 200+ volunteers that are coming to help Build a brand new playground for the kids!

BIRD HOUSES! Forget the standard cookie cutter wooden bird house and check out the link below to create some awesome bird houses out of recycled materials. Start a recycling collection during the planning weeks and on build day create awesome one of a kind bird houses!

http://greenopolis.com/goblog/green-groove/top-10-recycled-birdhouses

Happy Building!

Check out this amazing accessible playground that will be built in Hickory, North Carolina. Hickory is a KaBOOM! Playful City USA and was recently awarded a Let’s Play City Construction Grant, which will be used toward this new community-built playspace.

http://www.playgroundforzahra.org/playground.html

The playground will be built in honor of the late Zahra Baker, a 10-year old member of the Hickory community. Their incredible playground design will ensure that children of all abilities can access and play on all areas of the playspace and play together with all of their friends. The final design features ramped access to the structure, ground level panels, low level activities, accessible swings, and a swaying seesaw for youth of all abilities, called an AeroGlider.

This playground will be the result of a spectacular community effort, where many community members will contribute through financial donations, donation of resources, and volunteering during the construction of the structure. According to the project website, “the original goal was to raise $85,000 to build an all-children’s playground, and thanks to the generosity from the community, businesses, foundations, and grants, more than $170,000 has been raised.”
Hickory’s playground is an excellent effort of what can be achieved through community efforts and dedication to the cause of play for all members of their community. It will be great to see everyone playing together once this is completed in the spring of 2012!

Check out this amazing accessible playground that will be built in Hickory, North Carolina. Hickory is a KaBOOM! Playful City USA and was recently awarded a Let’s Play City Construction Grant, which will be used toward this new community-built playspace.

http://www.playgroundforzahra.org/playground.html

The playground will be built in honor of the late Zahra Baker, a 10-year old member of the Hickory community. Their incredible playground design will ensure that children of all abilities can access and play on all areas of the playspace and play together with all of their friends. The final design features ramped access to the structure, ground level panels, low level activities, accessible swings, and a swaying seesaw for youth of all abilities, called an AeroGlider.

This playground will be the result of a spectacular community effort, where many community members will contribute through financial donations, donation of resources, and volunteering during the construction of the structure. According to the project website, “the original goal was to raise $85,000 to build an all-children’s playground, and thanks to the generosity from the community, businesses, foundations, and grants, more than $170,000 has been raised.”

Hickory’s playground is an excellent effort of what can be achieved through community efforts and dedication to the cause of play for all members of their community. It will be great to see everyone playing together once this is completed in the spring of 2012!

Voltage 2011 is our featured playground of the day! Get all the info at http://www.bciburke.com/product.php?structure=3D-2011.

I love to ride with my friends on weekends to enjoy life.

A stepping stone pathway is a great way to make the entrance of your playground accessible. You can also involve kids in the entire project. Purchase some cement pavers, paint, paint supplies, and pathway sand. Paint fun designs on the pavers, create a level surface and lay the bricks. You can spruce up the area with bright colors while creating a inviting entrance for all to play! Check out the pictures below for great ideas.

Link to our build day!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9flUa_1cCvI

Beginning this past weekend, http://hello.kaboom.org, has been experiencing stability issues. If you've tried to create a new profile, sign in to your project page, or visit any of our Discussion groups, you may have experienced long load times and pages that wouldn't load up at all.

We apologize for the downtime and the inconvenience.

It's our top priority to resolve the issue and we expect to by up and running at 100% very soon.

If you have any problems or questions, please feel free to call me, Jason Cooper, at (202) 464-6189 or email me at jcooper@kaboom.org.