KaBOOM! and the Rebuild Texas Fund Provide New Play Opportunity for Kids Impacted by Hurricane Harvey

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Volunteers from Fort Bend Women’s Center (FBWC) and the community joined Kaboom! on December 15th to transform an empty site into a kid-designed, state-of-the-art playground in just six hours at Fort Bend Women’s Center The new playground will help make play the easy choice for kids and families in the Women’s Center Emergency Shelter, which was impacted by Hurricane Harvey.

In October, kids in the Shelter came together to draw their dream playground. The playground is based from their drawings and will provide more than 100 kids in Fort Bend Women’s Center’s programs with a great, safe place to play.

Vita Goodell, Chief Executive Officer, Fort Bend Women’s Center, said, “This project has literally been a dream come true for the children in our programs, particularly the Emergency Shelter. Our outdoor play area suffered greatly in last year’s storms and was no longer fit for use.

“For the children in our programs to have had the opportunity to be involved in designing this state of the art play space and to see so many volunteers come out to make it a reality sends a powerful message to them – it is telling them that they do matter, their voice matters and that they matter to this community. Understanding that is so important to them moving beyond the abuse they have experienced.”

Ensuring kids have safe places to play is critical to helping families and communities heal during times of recovery, as they continue to deal with the stress of lost homes, lost loved ones and lost routines. By creating and providing playspaces, this work will help kids and families continue to regain a sense of normalcy and make play an easier choice for families.

This playground project is part of a broader effort led by the Rebuild Texas Fund and KaBOOM! to serve communities affected by Hurricane Harvey by ensuring kids can get back to the business of childhood. It will be the tenth build by the partners. Overall, the partnership will lead 15 community-designed playground projects and award 20 creative play products – Imagination Playground™ and Rigamjig – to organizations across 41 counties in Southeast Texas, providing new opportunities to play for more than 87,500 kids over the next generation.