Foresters, KaBOOM! & Volunteers Build New Playground for Montreal Children

Child-Designed Playground will Eventually Serve 2,500 Children and their Families

MONTREAL, Aug. 7 /CNW/ - St. Dorothy Elementary School received a brand new playground today thanks to the effort of more than 200 volunteers from Foresters™, the English Montreal School Board and non-profit KaBOOM! The new playground will eventually serve 2,500 children and their families in the Montreal community for years to come.

"Foresters and Unity Life, a Foresters company, are committed to creating opportunities for families where they can spend quality family time together." said Alain Legault, Sales Director, Quebec and Eastern Canada with Unity Life. "Foresters is more than a life insurance provider.  Foresters champions the well being of families by investing in its members and communities where they live, like the Montreal St. Dorothy playground we all built here together."

Foresters, a life insurance provider committed to the well-being of families, is funding 20 playground builds across North America in 2010.By investing $1.5 million in these projects, Foresters is partnering with KaBOOM! to build playgrounds that will eventually serve more than 250,000 children and their families.

The playground at St. Dorothy will provide nearly 200 children and their families in the Montreal community with a great place to play every year. In less than eight hours, the child-designed playground was built from scratch by hundreds of volunteers from Foresters, the English Montreal School Board and the surrounding community. In addition, children and families spent the day playing games and participating in arts and crafts activities. Playgrounds are an ideal place for families to get to know other families and build strong communities.

"The children will be in such awe," said Rosetta Perri, principal of St. Dorothy School. "They will be thrilled with it. The playground is meant for our community, it will be something colorful, exciting and hopefully attract children from all over to come and play together."

Thanks to the work of Foresters, the English Montreal School Board and KaBOOM!, children and their families now have a 2,632 square-foot playground to call home that includes features such as a Geo Climber, Rockblocks Climber and Spiral Slide.

About English Montreal School Board/St. Dorothy Elementary

St. Dorothy Elementary School is situated in the Saint-Michel district of Montreal. It can be found on 6^th Avenue between Legendre and Emile Journeault, and is easily accessible via the #67 bus from Saint-Michel Metro. St. Dorothy Elementary School fosters a harmonious environment in which students grow in mind, body and spirit. Students are encouraged to become responsible, productive, effective learners who develop the self-esteem, self-discipline and knowledge to become contributing citizens in our society. The two goals guiding our mission are academic perseverance and educational success for all. St. Dorothy offers a Bilingual French program from Kindergarten through to Grade 6, which includes up to 50 percent French instruction. It also offers a free full-day English Pre-Kindergarten Program. The school has an innovative Information and Communication Technologies Program, a Sports and Music focus and several free extra-curricular activities and educational programs, including: lunchtime sports, chess, choir, robotics, field trips, P.E.L.O., homework assistance and a snack/milk program.

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 1,800 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 Foresters

Founded in 1874 as a fraternal benefit society, Foresters™ champions the well-being of families through quality life insurance, unique member benefits and inspiring community activities.  Foresters shares its financial strength with more than 675,000 members in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. Unity Life of Canada^‡ is a wholly owned subsidiary of Foresters. For more information, please visit www.foresters.com.

Foresters™ is a trademark of The Independent Order of Foresters, a fraternal benefit society, Toronto, Canada M3C 1T9.

^‡ Unity Life of Canada, a Foresters company, is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Independent Order of Foresters

SOURCE: Foresters

For further information:

Nadia Fiore, Foresters, 1-800-461-8431 x4763, [email protected]

Mike Vietti, KaBOOM!, 202-464-6076, [email protected]