Foresters, KaBOOM! & Volunteers Revitalize Stone Mountain Community with New Playground

Playground to enhance family well-being

STONE MOUNTAIN, GA, May 5, 2012 /PRNewswire/ - A dream is now a reality for children in Stone Mountain as their drawings were turned into a new playground today. In less than eight hours, the play space was built with the help of more than 200 volunteers from Foresters^TM, Mainstreet Community Services Association and non-profit KaBOOM!. The new playground will serve 1,800 children and their families in the housing community for years to come.

"Foresters believes in providing opportunities for families to spend quality time together," said Kasia Czarski, Foresters Senior Vice President, Chief Membership and Marketing Officer. A playground is an important piece in the revitalization of a community. Not only does it provide a first step towards keeping children healthy but it's a safe central location for the entire neighborhood to get together."

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.

Since 2006, Foresters has invested over $7 million with KaBOOM! with almost 100 playgrounds built or planned 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 an 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.

"Mainstreet has strived to provide programs that address youth, adults, and seniors in our community as well as in the adjacent neighborhoods," said Nadine Rivers-Johnson, Mainstreet Community Services Association Property Manager and 15-year homeowner. "We want to promote healthy, active family lifestyles, and this playground will benefit the entire area.  An active community is a safe and desirable place to live."

Thanks to the work of Foresters, Mainstreet Community Services Association and KaBOOM!, children and their families now have a 2,800 square-foot playground to call home that includes features such as a Slither Slide, Rockblocks Climbing Wall and Adventure Tube.

About Mainstreet Community Services Association
Mainstreet…a caring community, was developed as one of DeKalb County's first and largest planned "natural preservation" subdivisions in 1973. Located on 70 acres of land in Stone Mountain, GA., it is home to 1,164 residential properties. Mainstreet was developed with a "green" mindset and continues to maintain standards for natural preservation. Our commitment is to provide families with a sense of pride, safety in our own backyards, and outdoor activities that promote healthy family lifestyles.  It takes a village, so visit ours at www.mainstreetcommunity.org.

About Foresters
Foresters™ is a life insurance provider with a difference.  The fraternal benefit society, founded in 1874, supports family well-being through quality products, unique member benefits and inspiring community activities. Foresters shares its financial strength with almost 950,000 members in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom.  For more information, visit 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.

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! 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 89,000 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

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