Foresters, KaBOOM! & Volunteers Build New Playground for Vancouver Children

Child-Designed Playground will Eventually Serve 12,000 Children and their Families

VANCOUVER, Sept. 11 /CNW/ - Britannia Elementary Community School received a brand new playground today thanks to the effort of more than 200 volunteers from Foresters™, the Vancouver Board of Education and non-profit KaBOOM! The new playground will serve 12,000 children and their families in the Vancouver community for years to come.

"Foresters and Unity Life, a Foresters company, are committed to creating opportunities for families where they can play and spend healthy family time together," said Chris Blair, Director of Sales Western Canada, Unity Life and Foresters Canada Division. "Our mission is to enrich the lives of our members, their families and the communities where they live, like the Britannia Elementary Community School playground we all built together here in Vancouver."

Foresters, a life insurance provider committed to the well-being of families, is funding 20 playground builds across North America in 2010. By investing $1.5 million in these projects, Foresters is partnering with KaBOOM! to build playgrounds that will eventually serve more than 250,000 children and their families.

The playground at Britannia Elementary Community School will provide 12,000 children and their families in the Vancouver community with a great place to play. In less than eight hours, the child-designed playground was built from scratch by hundreds of volunteers from Foresters, the Vancouver Board of Education and the surrounding community. In addition, children and families spent the day playing games and participating in arts and crafts activities. Playgrounds are an ideal place for families to get to know other families and build strong communities.

"In our neighborhood, many families live in small apartments with little or no yard space for kids to play," said Britannia Elementary Community School Principal Ian Cannon. "A safe fun playground gives these kids a place to socialize outside and engage in healthy physical activities. Over the past couple of years, neighborhood parents have struggled in the face of funding cuts at the local and provincial level to find resources to get the playground built. We are thrilled that Foresters and KaBOOM! have stepped in to make the project happen. The community build will be a unique opportunity to experience what a large group of committed volunteers can accomplish in one day."

Thanks to the work of Foresters, the Vancouver Board of Education and KaBOOM!, children and their families now have a 2,520 square-foot playground to call home that includes features such as a Tire Swing, a 360 Degree Spiral Slide and a Rockblocks Climbing Wall.

About Vancouver Board of Education/Britannia Elementary Community School
At Britannia Elementary Community School, we facilitate the development of the academic, social, emotional, physical and aesthetic potential of students to achieve their personal best in our diverse, multicultural society. In partnership with others in the community we provide guidance through example, experience, and involvement, in a safe supportive environment. Britannia Elementary School is located in the heart of the Commercial Drive area of Vancouver city. It was built in the 1970s by the Vancouver School Board as a small scale neighbourhood school for Kindergarten to grade 7 students. The school currently has about 180 students (one class for each grade).  

About KaBOOM!
Headquartered in Washington, D.C., KaBOOM! is a national non-profit organization dedicated to saving play. Through community building, the company is focused on giving every child in America a great place to play within walking distance. Since 1996, KaBOOM! has used its innovative community-build model to bring together business and community interests to construct more than 1,800 new playgrounds, skate parks, sports fields and ice rinks across North America. KaBOOM! also offers a variety of resources, including an online community, free online trainings, grants, publications and the KaBOOM! National Campaign for Play, which includes Playful City USA and Playmakers - a national network of individual advocates for play. KaBOOM! also has offices in Chicago and San Mateo, Calif. For more information, visit www.kaboom.org.

About Foresters
Founded in 1874 as a fraternal benefit society, Foresters™ 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 675,000 members in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. Unity Life of Canada^‡ is a wholly owned subsidiary of Foresters. 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.
^‡ Unity Life of Canada, a Foresters company, is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Independent Order of Foresters