Designed by Kids, Built by Volunteers: Dream Playground Becomes Safe, Accessible Playground Reality for Telegraph Hill Neighborhood Center

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) January 26, 2012 -- SAN FRANCISCO—Hundreds of volunteers from the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) and the northeast San Francisco community are building a Safe, Accessible playground designed by children in one day at Telegraph Hill Neighborhood Center (Tel-Hi) on Tues., Feb. 7, 2012.

For more than 120 years now, Tel-Hi has been providing opportunities for individuals and families in our neighborhoods (North Beach, Chinatown, and Fisherman’s Wharf) to enrich their quality of life. Tel-Hi’s playground is an important neighborhood resource. Improvements to the Tel-Hi playground will particularly benefit the children of low- and moderate-income families, providing many of them with their only outdoor physical activity and play experiences

Children and parents from the surrounding neighborhoods of Tel-Hi designed the playground of their dreams. The new playground at Tel-Hi will have a 2,625 square-foot area featuring a safety sign in Braille, playground components for children between the ages of 2 to 12 and of different abilities, and rubber surfacing. The site will also include wheelchair ramps, several activity panels and more. Volunteers from AAOS, the local community and national non-profit organization KaBOOM! will come together build the playground in less than eight hours.

“Tel-Hi is an important part of the local community that enriches the lives of the many families and children through our programs and services. Our work reaches not only families-in-need, but children and the community-at-large,” says Nestor L. Fernandez II, executive director of Tel-Hi. “This new playground is going to be a place where families can gather and catch up with their neighbors and children can play. It will also help us make sure that we promote a healthier way of life in our community.”

“The children of the Telegraph Hill community will be able to enjoy this playground for years,” said Daniel J. Solomon, MD, an orthopaedic surgeon specializing in sports medicine and a spokesperson for the AAOS. “Building a safe, accessible playground allows us, the Academy, to give back to so that children of all abilities can play and interact with each other on a safe play space. It also gives us the chance to help prevent—not just treat—the injuries,” added Dr. Solomon.

The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) is providing a majority of the funding for the new playground, which will officially kickoff the AAOS 2012 Annual Meeting. Orthopaedic surgeons are the physicians who treat many people with physical disabilities, and see first-hand the fractures, dislocations and other results of playground injuries and falls. The playground build is an opportunity for orthopaedic surgeons to give back to its Annual Meeting’s host city by partnering with the local community on a playground build project—it’s also an opportunity to provide a play space where children with and without disabilities can play safely together, and build strong bones.
Come witness the transformation for yourself:

Date: Tuesday, February 7
Build Site Address: Tel-Hi Neighborhood Center 555 Chestnut Street (between Powell and Mason) San Francisco, CA

You may join in as a community volunteer for the entire day, or you may visit during any part of the day as an observer. The playground build begins with a kickoff ceremony at 8:30 a.m. and the ribbon-cutting ceremony will be at 2:30 p.m.

building     community     KaBoom     neighborhood center     playground     safe playground     volunteer