LEWISBURG, PA--(Marketwire - Feb 6, 2013) - Playworld Systems, a leading manufacturer of imaginative playground and fitness equipment, today announced a new community playground will be built at the Arizonans for Children's Mesa Visitation Center (1020 N. Horne, Mesa), in honor of Wayne Anderson, an equipment distributor for the company, who passed away last June. KaBOOM!, the national nonprofit dedicated to saving play and longtime Playworld Systems' partner, helped organize the build, which takes place today at 8:30 am MST.
Playworld Systems' employees, distributors and partners from across the country will participate in the build. Because Anderson embodied Playworld Systems' belief that the world needs play and dedicated his life's work to improving communities and children's play spaces, executives at the company wanted to recognize his decades of service with a playground build in conjunction with the company's 2013 national sales meeting.
More than 250 volunteers from Playworld Systems and Arizonans for Children, organizers from KaBOOM!, and residents of the Mesa community will come together to build the cutting-edge playground in just one day. Playworld Systems donated approximately $60,000 in playground equipment in memory of Anderson, who was president of Dave Bang Associates, a Mesa-based distributor of Playworld Systems' products. Members of Anderson's family will also be involved in the build, which is taking place at the park named in his honor.
"Last summer, Playworld Systems and our distribution family lost, a very dear friend and supporter," said Kevin Cook, sales director for Playworld Systems. "Wayne's impact on our lives and those in his community is immeasurable. He was and continues to be an inspiration to many. It is a privilege to bring together the Playworld Systems' family to construct a playground that will help his memory live on and bring the joy of play to thousands of children for years to come."
The new playground's design is based on drawings created by children who participated in a KaBOOM! Design Day event in December. The play space at Wayne Anderson Commemorative Park is one of more than 150 playground builds KaBOOM! will lead across the country in 2013 in an effort to fulfill its vision of a great place to play within walking distance of every child in America.
"Every child deserves to have a great place to play and we fill privileged to be a part of this special project," said Darell Hammond, KaBOOM! Founder & CEO. "Thanks to the efforts from Playworld Systems, Arizonans for Children and KaBOOM!, we built a lasting monument in memory of Wayne and moved one step closer to the KaBOOM! vision of a great place to play within walking distance of every child in America."
Arizonans for Children's Mesa Visitation Center provides a comfortable and neutral environment specially designated for supervised visitations so that children who are wards of the state can establish and maintain the best possible relationship with non-custodial parents and family.
Playworld Systems, Inc.
For more than 40 years, Playworld Systems has delighted in igniting joy in people of every age and ability through play and fitness. Based on the belief that The World Needs Play®, Playworld Systems turns dreams into reality with its imaginative, customized commercial playground and fitness equipment. Our innovative product lines - PlayDesigns®, PlaySimple®, Playworld®, Origins™, NEOS®, ENERGI®, and LifeTrail®, to name just a few - are designed to unleash the transformational power of play, and imaginations soar and bodies strengthen along the way. An industry leader, we are first and foremost a family-owned company that cares about our customers as if they were family. Our customers benefit from unparalleled personalized attention from our network of local distributors and our value-added services. We invest significant resources to measurably reduce our impact on the environment. Our aggressive action to eliminate polyvinyl chloride (PVC) helped Playworld Systems become the first and only playground manufacturer to have its products Cradle to Cradle CertifiedCM Silver. We are deeply committed to evolving the world of play by moving beyond accessibility to create truly inclusive play spaces. That's why we developed the Inclusive Play Design Guide™, a free comprehensive resource that enables the creation of landmark inclusive play spaces.
Come out and play with us. For more information about Playworld Systems, visit www.PlayworldSystems.com.
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! in 1996 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 90,000 places to play, built more than 2,200 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, 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.
Arizonans for Children
Arizonans for Children, Inc., a 501(c) 3 non-profit operating in Arizona since 2002, exists to facilitate opportunities and provide effective solutions to improve and stabilize the fragile lives of abused, neglected and abandoned children in child protective custody in Arizona. We provide the resources to ensure foster children have educational, tutorial and skill-development opportunities as well as special care items and other specialized services critical to their individual needs, overall development and general well-being. We provide services to these youths at no cost including tutor/mentoring, special education, legal education, financial education, creative classes such as sewing, dancing and cooking and family visitation centers.