A playground grows

Jet Blue, the Forest Hills headquartered airline, and KaBOOM!, the Washington, D.C. based charity recently teamed up with Variety Boys and Girls Club and 250 volunteers to build a kid-designed playground in Astoria.
KaBOOM! is dedicated to “build a play space within walking distance of every child in America,” according to project supervisor Caleb Marshall. Their model is to have children design the play space and teach community members to build them and 1181 play spaces have been completed in the last 11 years. “With our training and workshops, if we get the resources, we could do 1100 a year.” Marshall said.
The volunteers, who gathered on Saturday, April 28, spent the day converting a parking lot to a colorful, safe and attractive playground, all the while keeping an eye on threatening rain clouds.
But sunny skies prevailed, and by late afternoon, kids could have their fun outside the Boys and Girls Club, located at 21-12 30th road in Astoria. The playground created there is the 5th in the city and the 1st in Queens.