Schools

Ormewood Park Playground Gets $15K KaBoom! Grant

Ormewood Park Playground was one of five to be awarded.

ORMEWOOD PARK — Dr Pepper Snapple Group and national non-profit KaBOOM! awarded five recipients, including Ormewood Park Playground, a $15,000 Let’s Play Video Contest Grant following a national voting competition.

In March, Ormewood Park Playground submitted a compelling video about its playground project and was selected as one of 10 finalists to advance to the national voting competition between April 9-26. By finishing in the top five, Ormewood Park Playground was awarded the $15,000 Let’s Play Video Contest Grant.

“I’m excited to see our community come together to build an awesome play space,” Cindy Cahalen, Director of the Ormewood School, said in a statement. “Now that we've secured the grant, it's really time for us to get to work. We are reaching out to neighbors and businesses, too. We really need community folks on board and signing up to volunteer.”

Find out what's happening in East Atlantawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The Ormewood School and Ormewood Park Presbyterian Church plan to build the new playground structure on the church grounds. Their goal is to create a play space where neighborhood children can enjoy unstructured play while parents can meet and mingle at the same time. The school will also use the playground as
an outdoor classroom space for learning and creating art. Structural plans will incorporate universal design so that children of all ages and abilities can play in the same space.

Several neighborhood parents have already taken on volunteer roles to ensure project deadlines are met. Angela
Easter, whose children attend The Ormewood School, says the work is a labor of love.

Find out what's happening in East Atlantawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“Since the day the grant recipients were announced, my son has been asking when the playground will be ready,” she said. “He and the other neighborhood kids are so excited. We have to get right to work.”

The Ormewood School isn't the only organization in East Atlanta Patch that has received KaBoom! grants for improvements. Among them:

  • Ivy Prep in Kirkwood
  • Intown Academy in Old Fourth Ward
  • Grant Park Cooperative Preschool Kicks in Grant Park

The grants are part of Let’s Play, a community partnership led by Dr Pepper Snapple Group to get kids and families active nationwide. In 2011, as part of Let’s Play, Dr Pepper Snapple Group made a $15 million, three-year commitment to KaBOOM!, the national non-profit saving play by ensuring there is a great place to play within walking distance of every child. Together through Let’s Play, Dr Pepper Snapple Group and KaBOOM! will build or fix up 2,000 playgrounds by the end of 2013, benefiting an estimated five million children across North America.

Via Let’s Play grants and projects through 2012, Dr Pepper Snapple Group and KaBOOM! built or improved 1,154 playgrounds, benefitting an estimated 2.8 million children during the lifetime of the playgrounds.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

More from East Atlanta