Foresters, KaBOOM! & Volunteers Encourage Quality Family Time By Building New Playground for San Antonio Children

Child-Designed Playground will Serve 7,500 Children and their Families

SAN ANTONIO, TX, Nov. 5, 2011 /PRNewswire/ - Children in San Antonio received a brand new playground today thanks to the effort of more than 200 volunteers from Foresters^TM, a life insurance provider committed to the well-being of families, San Antonio Parks and Recreation Department, the Salado Creek Foundation and non-profit KaBOOM!  The new playground will serve 7,500 children and their families in the local community for years to come. Planning for the playground began at a Design Day event held in August when local children and community leaders met with organizers from KaBOOM! and Foresters to design their dream playground. The children's drawings were then used to create the final playground design.

"Foresters shares its financial strength with its members and communities where they live, such as San Antonio," said Bruce Burak, Foresters National Sales Manager. "Playgrounds are an ideal place for families to get to know other families and build strong communities. This new playground at Mendoza Park will provide opportunities for families to spend quality time together for years to come."

Since 2006, Foresters has invested over $7 million with KaBOOM! and built or planned almost 100 playgrounds across the U.S. and Canada. Over their 15 year lifespan, these playgrounds will provide more than 2.6 million children and their families with the opportunity to spend quality time together. Foresters is a KaBOOM! National Partner and a founding member of the KaBOOM! Leadership Circle - a group of organizations providing long-term guidance and support to KaBOOM! and its mission.

The playground at Mendoza Park will provide 7,500 children and their families in the local community with a great place to play and engage in healthy family time. In less than eight hours, the child-designed playground was built from scratch by hundreds of volunteers from Foresters, San Antonio Parks and Recreation Department, the Salado Creek Foundation and the surrounding community. In addition, children and families spent the day playing games and participating in arts and crafts activities.

"We are grateful to our partners, Foresters, the Salado Creek Foundation, and KaBOOM! and the volunteers for their efforts in making this new playground possible," said Parks and Recreation Department Director Xavier Urrutia. "It's a great enhancement to Mendoza Park, giving families in this area access to new recreational opportunities. Children will enjoy it for many years to come."

About the San Antonio Parks and Recreation Department
The San Antonio Parks and Recreation Department operates the City of San Antonio's recreational and cultural programs and maintains 234 City-owned parks including swimming pools, gymnasiums, sports facilities, recreation centers and the Botanical Garden and Conservatory. The department is responsible for the maintenance of more than 14,000 acres of park land. Its mission is to provide exceptional parks, facilities, programs and services to improve the quality of life for all. Matthew Mendoza Park, formerly Hillje Park,  was named in 2010 for U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Matthew Mendoza, who died in combat in 2008 in Afghanistan.

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 835,000 members in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. Unity Life of Canada¹, a wholly owned subsidiary of Foresters, represents Foresters in Canada. For more information, please visit www.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.

¹Unity Life of Canada, a Foresters company, is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Independent Order of Foresters

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.

SOURCE Foresters