and the City of Opa-Locka to Design Playground

MEDIA ADVISORY
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Monday, November 18
CONTACT:
Opa-locka Community Development Corporation: Victoria Martinez, (305) 396-0006, [email protected]
City of Opa-locka: David Chiverton, (305) 343-5666, [email protected]
MetLife Foundation: Nandika Madgavkar, 908-340-7537, [email protected]
KaBOOM!:Alyssa Ross, 202-464-6162, [email protected]
WHAT MAKES A GREAT PLAYGROUND? KIDS KNOW THE ANSWER!
MetLife Foundation, Opa-locka Community Development Corp.,
City of Opa-locka and KaBOOM! Host
Design Day for Kids to Create their New Playground
Design Day Event: Tuesday, November 19, 4 pm
Opa-locka Cultural Arts Center
WHAT:
On Tuesday, November 19, children ages 2 – 13 will put crayon to paper and draw their dream playgrounds.
Elements from the children’s drawings will be incorporated into the final design for the new community
playground to be built on Friday, January 24, at Magnolia North Playground in Opa-locka, Fla.
Design Day will also be the first meeting of the playground planning committee that will work for the next nine
weeks to plan and prepare for the construction of the new playground. MetLife Foundation; Cypress Financial
Group, an office of MetLife; Opa-locka Community Development Corp.; the City of Opa-locka and organizers
from KaBOOM! are hosting Design Day for children from the local community.
WHY:
Today, kids spend less time playing outside than any previous generation in part because 4-in-5 children do
not live within walking distance of a park or playground (CDC, 2010). This play deficit is having profound
consequences for kids physically, emotionally and cognitively. Children need a place to play every day in order
to be active and healthy, something KaBOOM! has been committed to since 1996.
The new playground will provide more than 350 children in Opa-locka with a safe place to play. Currently, every
week, more than 100 Opa-locka kids enjoy outdoor playtime on jungle gyms at each of the city’s parks: Segal,
Ingram and Sherbondy Village. Local residents access the city’s parks for afterschool, aquatic and sports
programs and recreational fishing. The addition of the Magnolia North playground signifies great improvements
made by community residents and partnering agencies to make the historic but distressed community safe for
children to play.
The new playspace is being funded through a grant from MetLife Foundation with Cypress Financial Group,
an office of MetLife, providing volunteers and sweat equity. The project is also one of more than 150
playspaces KaBOOM! has built across the country in 2013 in an effort to provide a great place to play within
walking distance of every child in America.
WHERE:
Opa-locka Cultural Arts Center
2123 Ali Baba Ave
Opa-locka, FL 33054
WHEN:
Tuesday, November 19
4 to 5 p.m.
WHO:
MetLife’s mascot, Snoopy; children from Opa-locka; and volunteers from Cypress Financial Group,
an office of MetLife, Opa-locka Community Development Corp., the City of Opa-locka and the
community participating in the planning meeting.
VISUALS:
Snoopy and up to 50 children drawing their dream playgrounds
Opa-locka Community Development Corporation
The Opa-locka Community Development Corporation (OLCDC) was established in November 1980 as a non-profit community development
corporation in order to address the distressed unemployment conditions, particularly in the Opa-locka and North Dade County, Florida,
communities. Its primary mission is to transform neighborhoods by capitalizing on community assets, empowering residents and creating
community and economic initiatives that serve as a catalyst in promoting sustainable development. For more information about OLCDC, please
visit www.olcdc.org.
City of Opa-locka
The City of Opa-locka was founded by aviation pioneer Glen Curtiss in May 1926. Native Americans originally named the area “Opa-tishawocka-locka” meaning a big island covered with many trees and swamps but the name was quickly shortened to Opa-locka. Curtis and his
architect Bernhardt Muller, inspired by the Arabian Nights theme, developed Opa-locka based upon Moorish Revival architecture with an array
of domes, minarets and streets named Sesame Street, and Ali Baba Avenue. Today, with twenty buildings listed on the National Register of
Historic Places, Opa-locka is home to the largest collection of Moorish architecture in North America. For more information about the City of
Opa-locka, visitwww.opalockafl.gov.
MetLife Foundation
MetLife Foundation was created in 1976 to continue MetLife’s long tradition of corporate contributions and community involvement. Today, the
Foundation is dedicated to advancing financial inclusion, committing $200 million over the next five years to help build a secure future for
individuals and communities around the world. MetLife Foundation is affiliated to MetLife, Inc. a leading global provider of insurance, annuities
and employee benefit programs, serving 90 million customers. Through its subsidiaries and affiliates, MetLife holds leading market positions in
the United States, Japan, Latin America, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. To learn more about MetLife Foundation, visit www.metlife.org.
MetLife
MetLife, Inc. is a leading global provider of insurance, annuities and employee benefit programs, serving 90 million customers. Through its
subsidiaries and affiliates, MetLife holds leading market positions in the United States, Japan, Latin America, Asia, Europe and the Middle East.
For more information, visit www.metlife.com.
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 2,400 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.
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