Playground to enhance family well-being
MONTREAL, Sept. 29, 2012 /CNW/ - A dream is now a reality for children in Montreal as their drawings were turned into a new playground today. In less than eight hours, the play space was built at the Tyndale St-Georges Community Centre with the help of more than 200 volunteers from ForestersTM, the City of Montreal, the Centre and non-profit KaBOOM!. The new playground will serve 7,500 children and their families in the community for years to come.
"Foresters believes in providing opportunities for families to spend quality time together," said Alain Legault, Foresters Director of Sales, Eastern Canada. "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 August 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 US 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 park will mean so much to our community. Already, the kids from our Centre are so excited to play on the new equipment and parents are relieved that their children will have access to a safe and amazing play structure," said Jen de Combe, Executive Director of Tyndale St-Georges Community Centre.
"We are proud to have contributed human and capital resources to redeveloping the Jessie-Maxwell-Smith Park. I thank the many partners and volunteers who helped install new safe and attractive playground equipment. This kind of collective project is a first for Montréal," said Mayor Benoit Dorais.
Thanks to the work of Foresters, the Tyndale St-Georges Community Centre, the City of Montreal and KaBOOM!, children and their families now have a 241 square-meter playground to call home that includes features such as a dragon slide, monkey bars and a truck shaped game structure.
About Tyndale St-Georges Community Centre
Since 1927, Tyndale St-Georges Community Centre has offered empowering, supportive programs and services to the community of Little Burgundy in South-West Montreal. Our services include early childhood programming, an after school program for elementary aged students, a high school support program and pre-employment training for adults. We are proud to have a community of over 300 volunteers per year. For more information visit www.tyndalestgeorges.com
About Arrondissement Sud-Ouest
Home to over 70,000 Montrealers, the Arrondissement du Sud-Ouest is an economic and cultural hub of the City of Montreal. With gems like Lachine Canal, historic architecture and the Atwater Market, not to mention the Maison de la culture Marie-Uguay and its housing development in full bloom it is a great destination for all. The arrondissement keeps its citizens at heart and is always seeking new ways to improve its services. For more information visit www.ville.montreal.qc.ca/sud-ouest
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 2,100 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
Jen de Combe, Tyndale St-Georges, 514-931-6265 ext. 33, [email protected]
Mathieu Robert-Perron, Ville de Montréal, Arrondissement du Sud-Ouest, 514-868-3695, [email protected]
Maria Ganogiannis, Foresters, 416-429-3000 x4096, [email protected]
Mike Vietti, KaBOOM!, 785-320-2137, [email protected]
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