Foresters, KaBOOM! & Volunteers Revitalize Pico Rivera Community with New Playground

Playground to enhance family well-being

PICO RIVERA, CA, April 28, 2012 /CNW/ - A dream is now a reality for children in Pico Rivera as their drawings were turned into a new playground today. In less than eight hours, the play space was built with the help of more than 200 volunteers from Foresters^TM, the City of Pico Rivera, the Pico Boys Baseball League and non-profit KaBOOM!. The new playground will serve 700 children and their families in the community every week for years to come.

"Foresters believes in providing opportunities for families to spend quality time together," said Bruce Burak, Foresters National Sales Manager. "A playground is an important piece in 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 February 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.

"Enhancing the recreational options and opportunities in our City parks is one of our top priorities," said Pico Rivera Mayor Bob Archuleta. "Foresters and KaBOOM! are definitely making that possible by granting our city a brand new playground for Streamland Park. The new playground will keep our children active and allow them to engage their creativity in play."

Thanks to the work of Foresters, the City of Pico Rivera, the Pico Boys Baseball League and KaBOOM!, children and their families now have a 3,132 square-foot playground to call home that includes features such as a Rockblocks Zigzag slide, a Swing Set and a 360 Degree Spiral Slide.

About the City of Pico Rivera
Pico Rivera is a thriving community that offers opportunities to all who live, work and relax in the City. Situated on the eastern edge of the Los Angeles basin and the southern edge of the area known as the San Gabriel Valley, Pico Rivera is approximately 13 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles. Formed through the merging of two historic communities, Pico and Rivera, the City was officially incorporated in January 1958 as the 61st city in Los Angeles County. Originally an agricultural area, the community evolved into a residential and industrial area following the end of World War II. Currently, the local housing stock, seventy percent of which is owner-occupied, has been expanded in recent years with the addition of several newer housing developments. Within the City's nine square miles, more than 120 acres are devoted to recreational uses, including just under 100 acres of local parks. Within the past couple of years, the City has been committed to renovating the City's parks through a Parks Renovation project. The on-going Parks Renovation project is providing much-needed improvement and expansion of city parks and recreational facilities throughout the community.

Since its incorporation more than 50 years ago, the City has embraced progress while honoring its heritage. As the community looks forward to the next 50 years, several recent and pending projects will help ensure Pico Rivera continues to be a great place to live, work and play.

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.

Ralph Aranda, City of Pico Rivera, 562-801-4430, [email protected]
Ryan Jones, Foresters, 1-800-461-8431 x4096, [email protected]
Mike Vietti, KaBOOM!, 785-320-2137, [email protected]