Foresters, KaBOOM! & Volunteers Revitalize Bensenville Community with New Playground

Playground to enhance family well-being

BENSENVILLE, IL, Aug. 4, 2012 /CNW/ - 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 Foresters^TM, 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

Terry Ryan, Bensenville School District 2, 630-766-5940 x105, [email protected]
Irene Shimoda, Foresters, 416-467-2544, [email protected]
Mike Vietti, KaBOOM!, 785-320-2137, [email protected]