Foresters, KaBOOM! & Volunteers Encourage Quality Family Time by Building New Playground for Grand Prairie Children

Child-Designed Playground will Eventually Serve 26,000 Children and their Families

GRAND PRAIRIE, TX, April 30 /PRNewswire/ - Children in Grand Prairie 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, Grand Prairie Parks and Recreation, Grand Prairie Boys Baseball and non-profit KaBOOM! The new playground will serve 26,000 children and their families in the Grand Prairie community for years to come.  Planning for the playground began at a Design Day event held in March 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 Grand Prairie," said Bob Pashby, National Sales Manager. "Playgrounds are an ideal place for families to get to know other families and build strong communities.  This new playground at Prairie Park will provide opportunities for families to spend quality time together for years to come."

Foresters has invested over $3 million with KaBOOM! to build 36 playgrounds across North America since 2006.  These playgrounds will eventually serve more than 575,000 children, providing them and their families with a place where they can play, learn and have fun together.

"We understand the importance of play, said Rick Herold, Grand Prairie's Director of Parks & Recreation. "And, we're very excited to work with Foresters, KaBOOM!, and Grand Prairie Boys Baseball to provide the community another opportunity for kids and families to enjoy the outdoors, stay active, and have fun."

The playground at Prairie Park will provide 26,000 children and their families in the Grand Prairie 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, Grand Prairie Parks and Recreation, Grand Prairie Boys Baseball and the surrounding community. In addition, children and families spent the day playing games and participating in arts and crafts activities.

"We're very excited to partner with The City of Grand Prairie on this project," said Gene Campbell, President of Grand Prairie Boys Baseball. "We genuinely care about the development of healthy, active and responsible youth in Grand Prairie. And we believe that projects like this will enhance the quality of life of the families in our community."

Thanks to the work of Foresters, Grand Prairie Parks and Recreation, Grand Prairie Boys Baseball and KaBOOM!, children and their families now have a 2,500 square-foot playground to call home that includes features such as a Glide Slide, Spiral Climber and Swing Sets.

About Grand Prairie Parks and Recreation
Celebrating over 50 years of existence, the national award-winning Grand Prairie Parks and Recreation Department is dedicated to "creating a GRAND lifestyle". The department has over 5,000 park acres, including more than 3,000 acres surrounding Joe Pool Lake, two nationally recognized golf courses, conference center, recreation facilities & pools, trails, dog park, skate park, cemetery, and a historic downtown theater. Grand Prairie Parks & Recreation is also the home of one of the top Christmas light park attractions in America, Prairie Lights. Dedicated to providing "world class service" the department recently won the highly prestigious Gold Medal Award from the National Recreation & Park Society.

For more information, visit www.GrandFunGP.com

About Grand Prairie Boys Baseball
Grand Prairie Boys Baseball, Inc. (GPBBI) was established in 1952 and to this date continues to provide the youths of this area, regardless of race, color or creed, the opportunity to participate in a controlled athletic competition; to instill the belief of fair play, good conduct, and sportsmanship at all times; to promote a common interest and tolerance among youths; to encourage adults to behave in an exemplary manner when supervising youths; and to keep the welfare of youths foremost and free from any adult compulsion for power and glory. GPBBI offers a spring league and a fall league with two levels of baseball, the recreation division (A) and the select division (AA). Grand Prairie Boys Baseball, Inc. has partnered with the Parks and Recreation Department for this playground build with our organizational goals are to provide opportunities for the youths of Grand Prairie and a playground fills a void in many neighborhoods for fun and play.

About Foresters
Founded in 1874 as a fraternal benefit society, Foresters^TM 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 835,000ˆ members in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. Unity Life of Canada^‡, a wholly owned subsidiary of Foresters, represents Foresters in Canada. 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.
ˆIncludes total number of UK Child Trust accounts
^‡ Unity 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. Because all children deserve to be active and healthy, KaBOOM! works to ensure that every child in America has a great place to play within walking distance. Since 1996, KaBOOM! has used its innovative community-build model to bring together businesses and communities to construct more than 1,900 new places to play across North America. KaBOOM! also fights the Play Deficit with online tools that empower communities to join the movement to save play. The KaBOOM! website, kaboom.org, allows communities to self-organize and take action to support play on a both a local and national level.

SOURCE Foresters

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