Playground will enhance family and community
well-being
NEW ORLEANS, April 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ - Just a few months
shy of the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, play
returned to Mid-City New Orleans today with a new playground built
at Morris Jeff Community School. It was a dream five years in the
making but in less than eight hours, more than 100 volunteers from
ForestersTM, Morris Jeff Community School (MJCS), and
organizers from non-profit KaBOOM! created the new play space,
which will serve more than 18,900 children and their families in
the local community for over the next 15 years.
"A community's well-being starts with a child's well-being,"
said Tony Garcia, President and CEO,
Foresters. "Playgrounds are important to communities, providing an
open space where children can play safely. We believe that an
investment in a playground is an investment in family well-being,
and we are happy to provide the New
Orleans community with a place that families can enjoy for
years to come."
The design for the new playground is based on drawings created
by MJCS students and their families at a special Design Day event
held in February. Joined by community members and
stakeholders, families met with organizers from KaBOOM! and
Foresters to design a playground that speaks to the school's strong
commitment to community and inclusion.
Since 2006, Foresters, an international financial services
provider, has invested over $10
million with KaBOOM! to build over 120 playgrounds across
the US and Canada by the end of
2015. Over their 15-year lifespan, these playgrounds will provide
more than 4 million children and their families with an opportunity
to spend quality time together and enhance family well-being.
"We have come a long way from our concrete play space on Poydras
Street, where our little school opened up shortly after Katrina,"
said MJCS Principal Patricia
Perkins. "Our parents, students and staff truly collaborated
over the last five years to dream up a space, and now with the
amazing contributions of KaBOOM! and Foresters, our children will
enjoy this amazing gift of play every day."
Green spaces and safe play structures where children and
families can enjoy and spend time together are sparse in many high
density communities. Playing outdoors is an important part of every
child's healthy development and the creation of this new playground
will allow thousands of children to play safely and be active in
their community.
Foresters is a founding member of the KaBOOM! Leadership Circle
– a group of organizations providing long-term guidance and support
to KaBOOM! and its mission. Since 1996, KaBOOM! has been dedicated
to the bold goal of ensuring that all children get the balance of
active play they need to become healthy and successful adults
because #playmatters.
Morris Jeff Community School
Founded in 2009, Morris
Jeff Community School is an open enrollment Type 5 Charter School
driven by two fundamental goals: building an institution of the
highest academic caliber for our children and transforming public
education in New Orleans, and
beyond. As a world school of the International Baccalaureate
Organization (IBO) the MJCS Primary Years Programme encourages the
natural curiosity of children and ties subject matter together in a
meaningful, applicable manner. MJCS is located in the heart of
Mid-City, but the more than 600 lifelong learners who attend the
school come from neighborhoods throughout the city. In the 10 years
since Hurricane Katrina, New
Orleans as a city is undergoing a transformation; the notion
of community is at the heart of that transformation. MJCS is an
example of that spirit. For more information, visit
morrisjeffschool.org, facebook.com/morrisjeffschool, or follow our
playground updates at twitter.com/morrisjeff.
About Foresters
For more than 140 years, Foresters™,
an international financial services provider, has fulfilled its
purpose to enhance family well-being for its members and the
communities where they live. A fraternal benefit society,
Foresters offers quality life insurance and investment 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.
KaBOOM!
KaBOOM! is the national non-profit dedicated
to bringing balanced and active play into the daily lives of all
kids, particularly those growing up in poverty in America. Since
1996, KaBOOM! has collaborated with partners to build, open or
improve nearly 16,000 playgrounds, engaged more than one million
volunteers and served 7.4 million children. KaBOOM! creates great
places to play, inspires communities to promote and support play,
and works to drive the national discussion about the importance of
play in fostering healthy lives and communities. To learn why
#playmatters: visit kaboom.org or join the conversation at
twitter.com/kaboom or facebook.com/kaboom.
SOURCE Foresters