SEATTLE—October 10, 2008—An excited team of community volunteers—more than half of them from Bank of America—will converge at NewHolly on Friday, October 24 to build a new playground for the community's children. Members of the community and employees of the Seattle Housing Authority will also participate as volunteers.
An exciting partnership between Bank of America, the national nonprofit KaBOOM! and the local community will bring people together to construct this new playground based on drawings from neighborhood children who attended a Design Day event in August.
The playground will provide more than 400 children who live at NewHolly with a safe place to play. Currently, the children have no playground equipment to play on in the new Central Park. Bank of America Charitable Foundation donated $62,000 to fund a majority of the new playground and more than 100 Bank of America volunteers will participate in the construction day. The play space is the third built by KaBOOM! and Bank of America, and one of more than 220 KaBOOM! will lead across the country in 2008 in an effort to provide a great place to play within walking distance of every child in America.
The playground will occupy about 2,500 square feet of the 3.5 acre Central Park, which provides a versatile green space in the middle of the third phase of the NewHolly community.
The day will kick off at 9 a.m. when volunteers receive their team assignments and begin work. Lunches for the volunteers will be contributed by local businesses. The day will conclude at 3 p.m. with a ribbon cutting ceremony to dedicate the new play space.
Building on a long-standing tradition of investing in the communities it serves, Bank of America will embark in 2009 on a new, ten-year goal to donate $2 billion to nonprofit organizations engaged in improving the health and vitality of their neighborhoods. The Bank of America Charitable Foundation, funded by Bank of America, gave more than $200 million in 2007, making the bank the most generous financial institution in the world and the second largest donor of all U.S. corporations in cash contributions.
Bank of America approaches giving through a national strategy called "neighborhood excellence" under which it works with local leaders to identify and meet the most pressing needs of individual communities. Through Team Bank of America, bank associate volunteers contributed more than 650,000 hours in 2007 to enhance the quality of life in their communities nationwide.
KaBOOM! is a national non-profit organization that envisions a great place to play within walking distance of every child in America.
Since 1995, KaBOOM! has used its innovative community-build model to bring together business and community interests to construct more than 1,500 new playgrounds, skate parks, sports fields and ice rinks across North America.
KaBOOM! also offers a variety of resources, including an online community, regional and national trainings, grants, publications and the KaBOOM! National Campaign for Play, which includes Playful City USA and the Playmaker Network – a national network of individual advocates for play. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., KaBOOM! also has offices in Chicago and San Mateo, California.