Let's give these kids a playground on Giving Tuesday

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Happy Giving Tuesday. Today is “Giving Tuesday”, a national day of giving at the start of the annual holiday season. It celebrates and encourages charitable activities that support non-profit organizations.

My children go to a public school in Chicago. It’s a magnet school with about 850 students from K to 8. It’s a really good school. We’re lucky to have this magnet school in our neighborhood. The administration and teachers are great. There is amazing cooperation and involvement from parents. However, the school lacks something really really important for these kids: a proper playground and a recess area. (Click here to make a contribution to Friends of Thorp.)

Instead there is a gray asphalt lot, which is hazardous as much as it’s boring and a bumpy lawn on the other with asphalt track around it. With longer school days and increased recess time they implemented two years ago 90 students in each grade can spend more time running around on the asphalt. However, this is not the last two year’s issue. The students at this elementary school never had a playground for decades. The community around it doesn’t have a playground nearby either. So the neighborhood children and families will benefit from the playground as well.

Three years ago Friends of Thorp, a non-profit organization, which I volunteer for, was founded by parents to change this. For the last three years, we have worked with local families and friends in an effort to raise funds to build a playground at Thorp. In February 2013, Friends of Thorp held a community playground brainstorming event with Urban Habitats in Chicago that created a master plan for our campus. We have applied for several grants and held multiple meetings with area businesses, school administration and our alderman to garner playground support. Thorp has recently won a grant for a “Learning Garden” and it was setup at the end of the Fall. We are so close to our goal, but we are not there yet.

On this Giving Tuesday, I am asking for your help to get push us across the finish line. You can DONATE in various ways. You can give a lasting give to commemorate the name of a loved one by buying personalized brick to be used to pave a path along Thorp’s new playground, with the donation fo $50 or more. Or you can directly donate to “Here we grow” campaign via Paypal. No amount is too small. Friends of Thorp is an an independent, non-profit fundraising organization, so your donations are tax-deductable.