April 9, 2009 | Read Time: 2 minutes
Kaboom, a charity that builds playgrounds, is trying to enlist people across the United States to help create an online map of the country’s play spaces.
Anyone can set up a profile on the organization’s Web site and then post a review and photographs of neighborhood recreation centers, skateboard parks, ice rinks, or school playgrounds.
Kaboom’s leaders say the database will help parents and policy makers determine if their cities and towns have safe, accessible playgrounds.
They also hope the site, which encourages users to interact with one another, can provide a means for people to organize to clean up playgrounds and promote the importance of play in their own neighborhoods.
“Let’s say you live in Atlanta and the city has eliminated recess in your school,” says Darrell Hammond, Kaboom’s co-founder. “You might organize a coalition and get recess reinstated by your school board.”
Kaboom has enlisted the help of a celebrity donor and six other nonprofit groups in its campaign to chart the locations of American playgrounds.
Julianne Hough, a musician and two-time winner on the television show Dancing With the Stars, has pledged $1 for every play space added over the next 100 days. First Book, Jumpstart, the National Wildlife Federation, and three other charities are competing for the money — up to $100,000 — by encouraging their members and supporters to add playgrounds to the site. People who register play spaces can designate which among the six groups will benefit from Ms. Hough’s support.
“Instead of trying to do something by ourselves, we wanted to get organizations that had a footprint across the country and in local communities involved,” says Mr. Hammond. “It allows them to give their members an action that’s relatively easy to do, and at the same time earn some money for their local chapter.”
The Omidyar Network, in Redwood City, Calif., has provided two grants totaling $14-million to help Kaboom develop online tools that advance its mission.
To get there: Go to http://playspace finder.kaboom.org.
