Jul 28 2014
Former NFL quarterback Ron Jaworski, more than 100 UnitedHealthcare employees, and volunteers from the Darby area will join today to build a new playground at Park Lane Elementary School.
The new 3,268-square-foot playground will include a triple racer slide, monorail, rock climbing wall and more. The playground’s design is based on drawings created by children from Park Lane Elementary who participated in a “design day” event last month.
The area surrounding Park Lane Elementary School has very few play opportunities and because of the school’s central location, its outdoor space has become the gathering area. Park Lane’s existing playground equipment is old and dilapidated, and will be torn down to make room for the new play space.
The volunteers are working with KaBOOM!, a national nonprofit organization that works to bring balanced and active play into the daily lives of all children. The Park Lane playground is the 2,484th KaBOOM!-organized build since 1996 and the 14th created by KaBOOM! and UnitedHealthcare.
“Our new playground will provide children and families with a fun, safe place to play, learn and spend time together while being active,” said Dr. Dawnée Watson-Bouie, principal, Park Lane Elementary School. “We’re very grateful to UnitedHealthcare, KaBOOM! and all our volunteers for rolling up their sleeves and helping us bring the joy of play to our campus.”
“UnitedHealthcare is honored to have the opportunity to help build a playground at Park Lane Elementary School,” said Sue Schick, CEO, UnitedHealthcare of Pennsylvania. “Our hope is that this project will allow everyone in this neighborhood the chance to participate in healthy activities by playing and exercising outdoors.”
This playground build is part of UnitedHealthcare’s “Do Good. Live Well.” program, an employee-volunteer initiative to help prevent obesity. For more information about the benefits of volunteering and to find local opportunities to get involved, visit DoGoodLiveWell.org. Follow @DoGoodLiveWell on Twitter or "like" Do Good. Live Well. on Facebook.
About Park Lane Elementary
Park Lane Elementary School, located in Darby, PA, serves approximately 400 students in kindergarten through grade 6. More than 88 percent of Park Lane’s student population is economically disadvantaged, more than 9 percent are English Language Learners, and more than 16 percent receive special education services. Park Lane School’s administration and staff provide a full range of educational support services for its students, with teachers meeting on a weekly basis in grade level groups to discuss ways to best meet the needs of their students. All of Park Lane School’s classes are taught by Highly Qualified Teachers as defined by the No Child Left Behind Act.
Park Lane Elementary School has a two-fold goal of advancing children’s learning in academic achievement and promoting character development. Dr. Dawnée Watson-Bouie, School Principal, works to encourage a partnership with the school community of students, parents, teachers, staff, and surrounding community that leads to achievement and continuous improvement for every child. Parent involvement activities include Family Reading Night, Books Out Loud, and Raising Young Readers workshops. To help develop character, values are incorporated into the daily school program to maintain a school climate filled with the human values of love, trust, peace, appropriate conduct, and non-violence.
Park Lane Elementary School is part of the William Penn School District, which serves more than 5,100 students throughout the boroughs of Aldan, Colwyn, Darby, East Lansdowne, Lansdowne, and Yeadon.
About KaBOOM!
KaBOOM! is the national non-profit dedicated to the bold new goal of ensuring that all children, particularly the 16 million American children living in poverty, get the balanced and active play they need to thrive. KaBOOM! has been a powerful champion for play since its founding in 1996, working with partners to build, improve and open more than 15,000 playgrounds, engage more than 1,000,000 volunteers and serve more than 6,600,000 children. KaBOOM! creates and catalyzes great places to play, inspires, empowers and leads play advocates, and educates and elevates the societal conversation about the importance of play in children’s lives. For more information, visit kaboom.org/act or follow the conversation on why #playmatters at twitter.com/kaboom or facebook.com/kaboom.
About UnitedHealthcare
UnitedHealthcare is dedicated to helping people nationwide live healthier lives by simplifying the health care experience, meeting consumer health and wellness needs, and sustaining trusted relationships with care providers. The company offers the full spectrum of health benefit programs for individuals, employers and Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, and contracts directly with more than 800,000 physicians and care professionals, and 6,000 hospitals and other care facilities nationwide. Globally, UnitedHealthcare serves more than 45 million people in health benefits and is one of the businesses of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH), a diversified Fortune 50 health and well-being company.