In June 2024, the Norristown Area School District in partnership with KABOOM! and Morgan Stanley built a new playspace at the Musselman Learning Center.
This project began back in April with a student-lead design process. It started with a Kid Session where students were able to draw their dream playgrounds. Students at Musselman Learning Center had big dreams for this playground from swings and slides to swimming pools. The team determined elements from the drawings and grouped them into types of play, such as swinging, climbing, and sliding. Then, there was an Adult Session made up of teachers, staff, parents, and community members. The adults worked together to pick out specific playground pieces that fit the request of the students.
A planning committee made up of NASD and Musselman Staff, KABOOM!, Morgan Stanley, and community members then met weekly to ensure everything was ready to build the playground in June. The committee handled construction and logistics, food for Prep Days and Build Day, media relations, volunteers, and more.
Build Week started with 2 Prep Days on June 25 and 26. Prep Days consisted of receiving deliveries, making posters, moving equipment pieces, and more. Once everything was prepped, we were ready for Build Day!
On Build Day, June 27, over 130 volunteers came to help build this playground. This project truly would not have been possible without all of these amazing volunteers. The day started with breakfast and a dance warm-up before we got right to work. We moved 102,000 pounds of mulch and mixed 11,760 pounds of concrete on Build Day.
The new 11,098 square foot playspace is made up of a play structure with four slides, six swings, two chalkboard walls, two Rhapsody® Drums, bilingual sidewalk games including hopscotch and four square, a rock climbing wall, and a shade structure with picnic tables and flower boxes.
Thank you to everyone who made this possible. Thank you KABOOM!, especially Jeff, Ted, Alex, and Britt. Thank you Morgan Stanley, and the over 90 volunteers that came to help on build day. Thank you to our Musselman Learning Center Team, especially Stephanie Cole, Kelly Espinoza, Candace Eck, Ivonne Gomezrueda, and Mark Pniewski. Thank you NASD Operations Team, especially Jeff Cardwell, Cecil Speights, and Chris Blake. And thank you to everyone who joined the Planning Committee.
Thank you to all of the local business and organizations that donated to this project: Norristown Area Education Foundation, Norristown Police Department, Norristown Fire Department, Councilwoman Lauren Hughes, Esq, Unides Para Servir Norristown, Taco Pizza, Las Fridas, Lady T’s Homestyle Southern Cuisine, Flavaz, El Limon, Rocco’s Pizza, Acme, Weis, and Wawa.
Thank you to our NAHS sports teams who came to volunteer: Football, Girls Lacrosse, and Girls Soccer. And thank you to all of those who came out to volunteer from Norristown Area School District Board of School Directors and Staff Members, Senator Amanda Cappelletti’s Office, and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
This is part of a nationwide effort led by KABOOM! to end playspace inequity – the reality that far too many children do not get the chance to play on a playground, something that should be part of every child’s life.
KABOOM! envisions a world where safe and amazing places to play exist for every child in America so that kids can grow up happy and healthy. This new playspace with NASD, the Musselman Learning Center, and Morgan Stanley is part of a nationwide effort led by KABOOM! to end playspace inequity – the reality that far too many children, especially children of color – do not get the chance to play on a playground, something that should be part of every child’s life. Their work is to ensure every kid can experience the numerous physical, social, and mental health benefits of play regardless of background or where they live.
Community members led the creation of the playground, from design to installation. In April, kids from Norristown shared drawings of their dream playspaces with project organizers. These ideas were integrated into the new playground design. This project represents progress in ensuring every kid has a place to play, providing a state-of-the-art playground for more than 300 children to enjoy each year.
Though geographically a suburban district, Norristown Area School District is an urban school district and is one of the most historically and dramatically underfunded school districts in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The district has had years of deferred maintenance and delayed capital project investments. A recently completed feasibility study indicated nearly $180 million in facility improvement needed in the next decade. The Musselman Learning Center building is a converted armory and has unique and sometimes challenging infrastructure. As the population of students and the breadth of programming has grown at Musselman, the need for additional and updated playground equipment has become more pressing.
This collaboration with KABOOM! is part of the Morgan Stanley Foundation's commitment to give kids a healthy start to life. Safe places to play are vital to that commitment. Since the beginning of this long-standing, successful partnership in 2011, Morgan Stanley and KABOOM! have served over 53,000 children in communities across the United States. This is Morgan Stanley’s 31st playground build with KABOOM!, and their second for the year.
KABOOM! is the national nonprofit committed to ending playspace inequity – the reality that quality places to play are not available to every child, especially in communities of color. Since 1996, KABOOM! has partnered with kids and communities to build or improve 17,000+ playspaces and ensure that nearly 12 million kids have equitable access to the crucial benefits and opportunities that playspaces offer. In 2022, KABOOM! launched the 25 in 5 Initiative to End Playspace Inequity to accelerate its mission in 25 high-priority locations over five years. Learn more at kaboom.org or join the conversation on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) is a leading global financial services firm providing a wide range of investment banking, securities, wealth management and investment management services. With offices in 42 countries, the Firm’s employees serve clients worldwide including corporations, governments, institutions, and individuals. For further information about Morgan Stanley, please visit www.morganstanley.com
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