MIAMI — More than 200 volunteers from the Church of the Open Door will join the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, organizers from KaBOOM! and residents of the Liberty City community on Saturday, April 6 to build a new playground at the church and future site of S.T.E.A.M. Academy for Early Learners.
The activity is set for 8:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. at 6001 N.W. Eighth Ave. in Liberty City.
The new playground’s design is based on drawings created by children who participated in a Design Day event that took place in February.
Currently, the children served by the Church of the Open Door and the upcoming S.T.E.A.M. Academy for Early Learners do not have a publicly accessible playground to enjoy. The new facility will provide hundreds of children in the Liberty City community with a safe place to play.
In addition to the community-built playground, the new play area will also include Imagination Playground in a Cart — a breakthrough playspace concept designed by architect David Rockwell to encourage child-directed, unstructured free play.
Organizers noted that today’s kids spend less time playing outside than any previous generation — in part because only one in five children live within walking distance of a park or playground — and the play deficit is having profound consequences for kids physically, socially and cognitively.
The new playground is the last of three being built by KaBOOM! and the Knight Foundation this year and one of more than 150 playground builds KaBOOM! will lead across the country in 2013.
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