WASHINGTON, Oct. 24 (UPI) -- Several members of Barack Obama's Cabinet and some 500 volunteers built a school playground in Washington because "every school should have a playground."
"Every single school should have a playground," Arne Duncan, secretary of education, said Saturday before the playground building took place at the Hyde Leadership Public Charter School, a charter school for pre-kindergarten through 12th grade, as part of Make A Difference Day, a national day of service involving more than 3 million people nationwide.
Shaun Donovan, secretary of housing and urban development, took it one step further: "My goal is not just to make sure that every school has a playground but that every neighborhood has a playground."
The Cabinet secretaries and the other volunteers including children not only built a playground in 6 hours, they also built a pathway, an outdoor classroom, picnic tables, benches, disposal areas, planted three gardens, created asphalt games and painted murals.
The majority of the funding for this playground was provided by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation as part of a national effort to engage residents in getting involved in their communities. Since 1995, KaBOOM! has marked Make A Difference Day by building playgrounds, and 15 years later, it marks its 1,894th volunteer-built playground.
