Designed by Kids, Built by Volunteers: DIRECTV, Nesbit Elementary PTA and KaBOOM! To Build 10,000-Square Foot Playground in Just One Day for Tucker Children
DIRECTV (NASDAQ:DTV):
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WHAT:
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More than 675 volunteers from DIRECTV, including employees,
dealers and partners, along with over 100 volunteers from the Nesbit
Elementary PTA, organizers from KaBOOM! and residents
of the Tucker community will join forces on Monday, April 16
to build a new playground at Nesbit Elementary. Funded by
DIRECTV, the playground is the largest ever constructed by
KaBOOM!, which has led the building of more than 2,000 playgrounds
across North America. The new playground's design is based on
drawings created by Nesbit students who participated in a Design
Day event in February.
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WHY:
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Today's kids spend less time playing outside than any previous
generation in part because only 1-in-5 children lives within walking
distance of a park or playground. This play deficit is having
profound consequences for kids physically, socially and cognitively.
Children need a place to play every day in order to be active and
healthy, something KaBOOM! has been committed to since 1996.
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The new playground will provide more than 1,700 children who attend
Nesbit Elementary with a safe place to play. Currently, the school
does not have an adequate playground to accommodate its student body.
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The playground is the second built by KaBOOM! and DIRECTV, and one
of more than 150 playground builds KaBOOM! will lead across the
country in 2012.
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In addition to the community-built playground, the new play area
will also include Imagination Playground in a Cart™ — a breakthrough
playspace concept designed by architect David Rockwell to encourage
child-directed, unstructured free play. With reconfigurable loose
parts, Imagination Playground in a Cart™ allows children to
constantly change their environment and design their own course of
play.
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WHEN:
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Monday, April 16
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9:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. Kick off ceremony and volunteer deployment
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11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Best viewing of playground construction
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1:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Final construction phase and adjustments
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3:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Ribbon-cutting ceremony to dedicate new play
area
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(Note: all times approximate)
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WHERE:
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Nesbit Elementary School
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6575 Cherokee Drive
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Tucker, GA 30084
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WHO:
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More than 800 volunteers from DIRECTV and the local community
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VISUALS:
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Before and after shots of the site
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Volunteers assembling brightly colored playground equipment
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Volunteers mixing and moving more than 70,000 pounds of concrete by
hand
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Volunteers moving 171,720 square feet of safety surfacing by hand
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Ribbon-cutting ceremony to dedicate the playground
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About Nesbit Elementary
Nesbit Elementary is located at 6575 Cherokee Drive in Tucker, Georgia.
It is a school in the Meadowcreek Cluster of Gwinnett County Public
Schools. The school opened its doors to 1,129 students in the fall of
1993. Today it serves more than 1,700 students from 78 different
countries. Nesbit Elementary strives to be a school that provides a
creative, challenging learning environment that encourages high
expectations for success for all students through the development and
use of 21st Century Skills. It seeks to help students develop
creative skills which will carry them toward new ideas, new experiences,
and new challenges.
About Gwinnett County Public Schools
Gwinnett County Public Schools, located in the metro Atlanta area, is
the largest school system in Georgia and continues to grow. The school
district serves more than 162,000 students. In fact, one of every five
Gwinnett County residents is a GCPS student. The school system is
diverse both ethnically and socioeconomically, with nearly 53% of
students qualifying for free or reduced lunch. A high-achieving
district, Gwinnett County Public Schools, along with its students and
teachers, continues to earn recognition. The Gwinnett school system is
the winner of the 2010 Broad Prize for Urban Education, the country's
largest education award honoring school districts that demonstrate the
greatest overall performance and improvement in student achievement.
About DIRECTV
DIRECTV (NASDAQ:DTV) is one of the world's leading providers of digital
television entertainment services delivering a premium video experience
through state-of-the-art technology, unmatched programming and industry
leading customer service to 32 million customers in the U.S. and Latin
America. In the U.S., DIRECTV offers its 19.9 million customers access
to more than 170 HD channels and Dolby-Digital® 5.1 theater-quality
sound, access to exclusive sports programming such as NFL SUNDAY
TICKET™, Emmy- award winning technology and higher customer satisfaction
than the leading cable companies for 11 years running. DIRECTV Latin
America, through its subsidiaries and affiliated companies in Brazil,
Mexico, Argentina, Venezuela, Colombia, and other Latin American
countries, leads the pay-TV category in technology, programming and
service, delivering an unrivaled digital television experience to 12
million customers. DIRECTV sports and entertainment properties include
three Regional Sports Networks (Northwest, Rocky Mountain and
Pittsburgh) as well as a 60 percent interest in Game Show Network. For
the most up-to-date information on DIRECTV, please visit www.directv.com.
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.
Imagination Playground LLC
Imagination Playground is a breakthrough playspace concept conceived and
designed by acclaimed architect David Rockwell to encourage
child-directed, unstructured free play. Rockwell and his firm, Rockwell
Group, have partnered with KaBOOM!, the leading national non-profit
organization dedicated to bringing play to kids everywhere. The mission
of this partnership is to inspire children's inherent ability to dream
and create by bringing Imagination Playground to communities across the
country. With a focus on loose parts, Imagination Playground offers a
changing array of elements that allows children to constantly
reconfigure their environment and to design their own course of play.
Giant foam blocks, mats, wagons, fabric and crates overflow with
creative potential for children to play, dream, build and explore
endless possibilities. For more information, please visit www.imaginationplayground.com
or call 1.866.986.5551.
DIRECTV PR
Cara Brugnoli, 347.224.9534
CMBrugnoli@DIRECTV.com
Jade
Ekstedt, 310.480.9416
jlekstedt@DIRECTV.com
or
GCPS
Media Relations
Jorge Quintana, 678-301-6020
jorge_quintana@gwinnett.k12.ga.us
or
Nesbit
Elementary
Clayborn Knight, 770-414-2740
clayborn_knight@gwinnett.k12.ga.us
or
KaBOOM!
Mike
Vietti, 785-320-2137
mvietti@kaboom.org
Source: DIRECTV
News Provided by Acquire Media
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