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WORKERS PUT THE finishing touches on a new playground which was financed by an anonymous donation to The Salvation Army. |
Thanks to two generous—and anonymous—donors and a non-profit organization that cares about kids, the Army has two new playgrounds in the Southwest Division.
The organization that made these playgrounds happen is KaBOOM!, a national non-profit organization created in 1995 whose vision is to create great play spaces within walking distance of every child in North America. KaBOOM! has built hundreds of community play spaces and renovated thousands more.
The Las Vegas involvement started when Development Director Charles Desiderio received a telephone call from KaBOOM!’s Evelyn Furia who asked if the Army could use a playground. Needless to say, it was only moments before Clark County Coordinator Major William Raihl, Lt. Wayne Chaisson, and Desiderio put their heads together and found a big need in the SAYSO After School Program in North Las Vegas.
Building the playground was really a community event; almost 200 volunteers from all over Las Vegas became part of the project. City officials and media responded and the weather cooperated! North Las Vegas had a new and great place to play.
In Pahrump, the weather proved to be a challenge but still about 90 volunteers came out to put the KaBOOM! project together and the children in the after-school program have a new and very special place to play.
One of the key elements in the KaBOOM! project is that community involvement and cooperation must exist for the project to succeed.
In North Las Vegas, not only did a playground and side projects get built, but the volunteers also installed an underground water system for the plants and shrubs, even though that was not in the plans.
The corps officers for the North Las Vegas Corps are Lieutenant Wayne and Rachel Chaisson; Captains Dionisio and Arlene Torres are corps officers for the Pahrump Corps.