KaBOOM! Playground Build

(Posted by Megan Myers, Amway Corporate Citizenship Intern)

The day started off hot, and it was only going to get hotter, but everyone was in good spirits and ready to get to work.  170 employee volunteers from Amway World Headquarters put in a solid days work building a brand new playground at Camp O’Malley from the ground up on June 6, 2008. 

Through the One by One Campaign for Children, Amway partnered with the Grand Rapids Police Department and KaBOOM to provide the obstacle course style playground for campers at Camp O’Malley in Caledonia, Michigan. The camp playground is the second built by KaBOOM and Amway, the first was in May 2007 to build a safe place to play for Grand Rapids children at Camelot Park. (Read about it here!) 

We arrived at Camp O’Malley at about 9am and we’re soon split up into teams to make the playground designed by campers a reality.  I was in the mulch group, and responsible for moving two huge mountains of mulch onto the dug out square of earth where the playground would be erected.  There were other groups too who assembled playground parts, laid down a black liner, and mixed cement. There were also jobs not pertaining to the playground that we were there to help out with.  Some people planted flowers, others built benches and we even painted a colorful mural inside the gym! 

I was amazed at how motivated everyone was and how much progress we made in just one day!  That morning there was nothing but a dug out pit in the ground and by the end of the day there was a fully functional playground for over 500 children to enjoy this summer… and for many summers to come.  It was pretty amazing!

My favorite part of the experience was seeing everyone working together and seeing our efforts materialize before our eyes.  Looking back at what we had accomplished made all that hard work worthwhile.  Throughout the incredibly hot weather, and the ominous threat of a looming thunderstorm, we got it done… and for the kids at Camp O’Malley, it was time to play!