GREATER NEWARK HOUSING PARTNERSHIP, URBAN LEAGUE OF ESSEX COUNTY, BILL ACKMAN’S PERSHING SQUARE CAPITAL MANAGEMENT AND KaBOOM! TO BUILD PLAYGROUND IN JUST ONE DAY FOR CHILDREN!
WHAT:
More than 200 volunteers from Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management, Greater Newark Housing Partnership and the Urban League of Essex County, organizers from the non-profit KaBOOM! and residents of the Fairmount Heights neighborhood will join forces on Saturday, Oct. 27 to build a new playground at a space that is currently an empty lot. The new playground’s design is based on drawings created by children who live in Fairmount Neighborhood and participated in a Design Day event in September.
WHY:
Today’s kids spend less time playing outside than any previous generation in part because only 1-in-5 children live within walking distance of a park or playground. This play deficit is having profound consequences for kids physically, socially 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 600 children in the Fairmount Heights neighborhood with a safe place to play. Currently, the children living in the neighborhood do not have a safe playground or ample green space within walking distance to enjoy.
The playground will be the first built by KaBOOM! and Pershing Square Capital Management employees in partnership with The Pershing Square Foundation, and is one of more than 150 playground builds KaBOOM! will lead across the country in 2012 in an effort to provide a great place to play within walking distance of every child in America.
WHEN:
Saturday, October 27
- § 8:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. Kick off ceremony and volunteer deployment
- § 2:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Ribbon-cutting ceremony to dedicate new play area
WHERE:
- 215 12th Avenue
- Newark, NJ 07103
WHO:
- Hundreds of volunteers from the community
- Newark Schools Superintendent Cami Anderson
VISUALS:
- Before and after shots of the site
- Volunteers assembling brightly colored playground equipment
- Volunteers moving 43,740 square feet of safety surfacing by hand
- Ribbon-cutting ceremony to dedicate the playground
