Volunteers To Build New Playgrounds
Parents and children in Detroit and Dearborn will have new places to play thanks to volunteers who are working Saturday to build new playgrounds.
Community builds are taking place at ACCESS (Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services) on Saulino Court in Dearborn, Jude Missionary Baptist Church on Van Dyke in Detroit, Paul Robeson-Malcolm X Academy on Fenkell and New Starlight Baptist Church on Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd in Detroit.
ACCESS officials say the new playground will give kids from Dearborn's large Arab American community a place to interact with their peers.
Detroit Public Schools officials say the new playgrounds will eventually serve more than 30,000 children in the Detroit area.
"This is an excellent opportunity for families from the two joining schools to come together and build a brand new playground that will benefit the students from both school communities to be housed in one building this fall," said Dr. Jeanette Collins, principal of Paul Robeson Academy, in a statement. "It's also tremendously exciting that the playground equipment was designed by students and incorporates new concepts of how children play to stimulate their minds and bodies."
The playgrounds are among 13 being supported by the Knight Foundation across the country this year. Organizations and the foundation is working with KaBOOM!, a national nonprofit that is helping build more than 1,700 new playgrounds, skateparks, sports fields and ice rinks across North America.
