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

Playground to enhance family well-being

LOUISVILLE, KY, Sept. 7, 2013 /PRNewswire/ - A dream is now a reality for children in Louisville 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, YouthBuild Louisville and non-profit KaBOOM!. The new playground will serve 15,300 children and their families in the community for years to come.

"Foresters believes in providing opportunities for families to spend quality time together," said Kasia Czarski, Foresters Senior Vice President, Chief Membership and Marketing Officer. "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 July 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.

"YouthBuild Louisville works to train our communities' youth while building an interactive, learning space in the Smoketown neighborhood," said YouthBuild Louisville Executive Director, Lynn Rippy. "The YouthBuild campus is enjoyed  by community groups, local schools and child care centers and the young adults in our year-round program.  The new playground adds neighborhood space for learning and playing."

Thanks to the work of Foresters, YouthBuild Louisville and KaBOOM!, children and their families now have a 2,500 square-foot playground to call home that includes features such as a Slither Slide, Swings and Geo Vertical Climber.

A passionate advocate for family well-being, Foresters recently launched the Tech Timeout™ challenge, which encourages families to take a pledge to turn off all electronic devices for an hour a day for one week.  For more details, visit techtimeout.com.

About YouthBuild Louisville
YouthBuild Louisville is an education, job and leadership training program designed to help young adults realize their potential. Founded 12 years ago, YouthBuild Louisville has developed a two pronged approach using both classroom and hands on job skills training. The program has graduated 350 participants, helping young adults obtain GEDs and go on to employment and/or post-secondary education. The organization has made a $2.8 million commitment to the Smoketown neighborhood with plans for an expanded campus underway. Within the community, YouthBuild Louisville students have built 10 new homes, rehabbed 16 homes, created 200 community gardens and developed three miles of trails in local parks. For more information visit www.youthbuildlouisville.org.

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 over one million 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.

Tech Timeout and the Tech Timeout logo are trademarks of The Independent Order of Foresters

About KaBOOM!
KaBOOM! is the national non-profit dedicated to giving kids the childhood they deserve by bringing play to those who need it most. 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. 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 because children need to play actively every day at home, in school and in their communities. Since then, KaBOOM! has mapped over 90,000 places to play, built more than 2,300 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 TheNew York Times Best Seller KaBOOM!: A Movement to Save Play, now out in paperback. 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 an office in San Mateo, Calif. For more information, visit www.kaboom.org.

SOURCE Foresters