Child-Designed Playground will Eventually Serve 4,000 Children and their Families

WESTMINSTER, CO, July 30, 2011 /PRNewswire/ - Children in Westminster received a brand new playground today thanks to the effort of more than 200 volunteers from Foresters^TM, a life insurance provider committed to the well-being of families, Crown Pointe Academy and non-profit KaBOOM!  The new playground will serve 4,000 children and their families in the Westminster community for years to come.  Planning for the playground began at a Design Day event held in May 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.

"Foresters shares its financial strength with its members and communities where they live, such as Westminster," said Kasia Czarski, Foresters Chief Membership and Marketing Officer. "Playgrounds are an ideal place for families to get to know other families and build strong communities. This new playground at Crown Pointe Academy will provide opportunities families to spend quality time together for years to come."

Since 2006, Foresters has invested over $7 million with KaBOOM! and built or planned almost 100 playgrounds 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 the 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.

The playground at Crown Pointe Academy will provide 4,000 children and their families in the Westminster community with a great place to play and engage in healthy family time. In less than eight hours, the child-designed playground was built from scratch by hundreds of volunteers from Foresters, Crown Pointe Academy and the surrounding community. In addition, children and families spent the day playing games and participating in arts and crafts activities.

"There is a missing piece when a school does not have a playground," said Barb Ridenour, Director of Crown Pointe Academy. "We knew it last year when the new school building opened. So we were delighted to be selected by KaBOOM!, and funded by Foresters, for the construction of a playground, an outdoor classroom, benches and tables. Now that missing piece will be filled."

Thanks to the work of Foresters, Crown Pointe Academy and KaBOOM!, children and their families now have a 4,500 square-foot playground to call home that includes features such as a Glide Slide, Rockblocks Climbing Wall and a Rocky Ridge Climber.

About Crown Pointe Academy
The school was started by a group of parents in 1997. It is an Adams County District 50 free public charter school, offers a challenging, content-rich curriculum with goals of academic excellence and achievement for all students. The school emphasizes that all students deserve to be fully challenged and motivated to succeed. The school follows the philosophy that self-esteem derives from true achievement. For more information, please visit www.crownpointeacademy.org

About Foresters
Founded in 1874 as a fraternal benefit society, Foresters^TM champions the well-being of families through quality life insurance, unique member benefits and inspiring community activities.  Foresters shares its financial strength with more than 835,000 members in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. Unity Life of Canada¹, a wholly owned subsidiary of Foresters, represents Foresters in Canada. For more information, please visit www.foresters.com.

Foresters^TM is a trademark of The Independent Order of Foresters, a fraternal benefit society, Toronto, Canada M3C 1T9.
¹Unity Life of Canada, a Foresters company, is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Independent Order of Foresters

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! 15 years ago 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 85,000 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!. In addition to building playgrounds, KaBOOM! National Partners, such as Foresters^TM support KaBOOM! national programs, which have a nation-wide impact on the health and well-being of children and communities. KaBOOM! national programs spread the message that play is critical to the development of children and create solutions to address the play deficit that currently exists in thousands of communities nationwide. Foresters^TM is also a member of the KaBOOM! Leadership Circle, whose members provide long-term guidance and support for the organization and our mission. To learn more how KaBOOM! and our partners are fighting the play deficit, go to www.kaboom.org.

SOURCE Foresters