More than 60 Ravens players will join Good Samaritan Hospital, organizers from KaBOOM!, residents of the Baltimore community and corporate volunteers to build a playground at the Hospital's Child Development Center on Monday, June 8. The entire playground will be built in less than eight hours.
The design of the playground is based on drawings provided by children at the Center, who put their ideas to paper at a Design Day event held in April.
The new playground will provide more than 50 children served by the hospital every day with a great place to play. Currently, the children have only outdated equipment to play on, which will be removed to make way for the new playground. Ravens players and volunteers will be involved in more than 25 build groups on Monday, including tasks from painting a mural, constructing swing sets and a rock climbing wall, to building benches and landscaping.
The playground build is made possible through a grant from the Ravens All Community Team Foundation and through KaBOOM!, a national non-profit that envisions a great place to play within walking distance of every child in America. Over the past decade, KaBOOM! has used its innovative community-build model to bring together business and community interests to construct over 1,600 new playgrounds, skateparks, sports fields and ice rinks across North America.
The build would also not be possible without Good Samaritan Hospital, a member of MedStar Health. Good Samaritan's Child Development Center opened in 1990 on the hospital grounds to serve a large number of working parents by caring for their 2- to 5-year-olds. Since inception, Good Samaritan not only saw the Center as an employee benefit, but as a community benefit that serves the neighborhoods surrounding the hospital campus. Children at the Child Development Center use the playspace at least three times a day; however, it is the same playground and equipment from when the center opened 21 years ago.
Please contact Melanie LeGrande with the Ravens (410-258-7216) or Debbie Bangledorf with Good Samaritan Hospital (443-444-4799) for media scheduling and live shots. Volunteers will be onsite for a kickoff ceremony at 11 a.m. with a ribbon-cutting ceremony set for 5 p.m.
WHAT:Playground Build at Good Samaritan Hospital's Child Development Center
WHO:Ravens Players, Coaches, Staff
Ravens Cheerleaders and Poe, Official Mascot
More than 300 Volunteers
WHEN: Monday, June 8, 2009
10:00 a.m. Project Setup
11:00 a.m. Kickoff and Volunteer Deployment
5:00 p.m. Ribbon Cutting Ceremony
WHERE: Good Samaritan Hospital Child Development Center
5601 Loch Raven Boulevard
Baltimore, MD 21239
