State Farm® Helps To Provide New Playground To New Orleans Community
State Farm continues to give back to the ‘Big Easy’ after Katrina by joining neighborhood residents for playground building project
Bloomington, Ill, Nov. 17, 2011 – More than 200 volunteers from State Farm®, the non-profit agency KaBOOM! and Broadmoor community residents will not be spending their Black Friday shopping for the holidays. Instead, on Friday, November 25th all parties will join forces for a one-day event to build a playground at the Andrew H. Wilson Charter School.
Children at Andrew H. Wilson Charter School and the Broadmoor community in New Orleans have been deprived of an area in which to run, jump, and play for many years. The school, which has more than 500 students, was created in 2007 in response to the need for new schools after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. Since it was built, the school has never offered a playground area for its students or surrounding community.
“Being a good neighbor is all about being involved and helping the communities in which we work and live,” said Pam El, State Farm marketing vice president. “By providing Andrew H. Wilson Charter School a playground where students and surrounding children can play and grow, we’re giving the community a new place to join together and create lasting memories.”
The playground will be built based off of drawings created by children who participated in a Design Day event in September, in which they were asked to sketch their ideal playground. Once the playground is completed, students, children and the surrounding community will have a safe place to play in a neighborhood that is still in the process of recovery.
“Playgrounds have a special meaning for children, but this one will have even more of a significant meaning for the children and families of Broadmoor,” said Logan Crowe, Principal of Andrew H. Wilson Charter School. “Our new playground is not only derived right from our student’s creativity, but it is also a symbol of how far we’ve come since the damage of Hurricane Katrina.”
In addition to the playground building project, State Farm will be holding the Neighborhood of Knowledge® program on-site at the Andrew H. Wilson Charter School. The Neighborhood of Knowledge program has added a teen driver safety component in response to the alarming number of teens killed in car crashes each year in the United States. Two State Farm agents will educate teen drivers on driving safely, independently, and being alert while on the road.
Over the past 6 years, State Farm and KaBOOM! have built playgrounds at The Intercultural Charter School, Happy Kid’s Day Care, Sylvanie Williams Elementary, Mary D. Coghill Elementary and Abramson Science, and Technology Charter School.
Each project was undertaken in conjunction with State Farm’s sponsorship of the State Farm Bayou Classic®, the annual gridiron match-up between Grambling State University and Southern University.
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!. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., KaBOOM! also has offices in Chicago and San Mateo, Calif. For more information, visit www.kaboom.org.
About Andrew H. Wilson Charter School
Andrew H. Wilson Charter School was formed in 2007, responding to the need for great, new schools after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. With an opportunity to start fresh, Wilson Charter is now impressively equipped with an art media center, science lab and computer lab. The school also boasts a LEED Gold Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. Their mission is to provide a challenging, enriching and meaningful curriculum to their students, giving the children the opportunity to meet high academic expectations and build the skills and confidence needed to become intelligent, ethical and civic-minded citizens. Andrew H. Wilson Charter School believes not only in their students’ ability to excel, but in the responsibility of the school community and the community-at-large to create the safe and supportive environment necessary for development.
About State Farm®
State Farm and its affiliates are the largest provider of car insurance in the U.S. and is a leading insurer in Canada. In addition to providing auto insurance quotes, their 17,800 agents and more than 65,000 employees serve 81 million policies and accounts – more than 79 million auto, home, life and health policies in the United States and Canada, and nearly 2 million bank accounts. Commercial auto insurance, along with coverage for renters, business owners, boats and motorcycles, is also available. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company is the parent of the State Farm family of companies. State Farm is ranked No. 43 on the Fortune 500 list of largest companies. For more information, please visit http://www.statefarm.com or in Canada http://www.statefarm.ca.
