City of Lauderhill, FLIPANY, Humana Inc., KaBOOM! and hundreds of volunteers to build playground in one day, Wed., Aug. 3
--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Humana Inc. (NYSE: HUM):
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WHAT: |
The City of Lauderhill Parks and Leisure Services Department, Florida Introduces Physical Activity and Nutrition to Youth (FLIPANY), Humana Inc., organizers from KaBOOM! and volunteers from the local community will join forces on Wed., Aug. 3 to build a new multigenerational playground at Ruth Rothkopf Park. The new playground, funded by Humana, is based on personal drawings created by children and seniors during a community Design Day in June. |
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WHY: |
The new Lauderhill community playground will provide a safe place to play for more than 1,200 children along with their parents and grandparents. Currently, children who play at Ruth Rothkopf Park only have a small amount of old, outdated equipment to enjoy. | |||||||
| The new multigenerational playground will accommodate people of all ages and abilities and provide a diverse gathering area for Lauderhill residents. Volunteers from Humana and the community will build the new, 2,500-sq.-ft. community playground. This unique space is designed to encourage physical activity for all ages at a time when obesity is taking an ever-larger toll on our nation. It will include five stand-alone exercise stations for adults and senior citizens to enjoy. Volunteers will also build new picnic tables, benches, shade areas and an enhanced walking path. | ||||||||
| This innovative space will be the first playground funded by Humana through a partnership with KaBOOM! For 15 years, KaBOOM!, a national nonprofit whose vision is to create a great place to play within walking distance of every child in America, has been building playgrounds to fight Play Deficit (the lack of play in the lives of America’s children). This lack of play is having profound consequences on kids’ health and well-being. Today’s kids spend less time playing outside than any previous generation in part because only one in five children live within walking distance of a park or playground. | ||||||||
| As a leading health care company and Florida’s largest provider of Medicare health plans, Humana understands the close connection between activity and overall health and well-being. | ||||||||
| According to researchers from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, there is a direct correlation between the Play Deficit and childhood obesity: In neighborhoods without a park or playground, the incidence of childhood obesity increases 29 percent. In fact, children with a park or playground within half a mile are almost five times more likely to be a healthy weight than children without playgrounds or parks nearby. | ||||||||
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That’s why Humana is commemorating its 50th anniversary in August by donating funds, resources and time to this project to promote lifelong well-being in South Florida and thank the community for its support over the years |
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WHEN: |
Wednesday, August 3 |
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7:30 a.m. to 8 a.m. |
Kick off ceremony and volunteer deployment |
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10 a.m. to Noon |
Best viewing of playground construction |
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Noon to 1:30 p.m. |
Final construction phase and adjustments |
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1:30 p.m. to 2 p.m. |
Ribbon-cutting ceremony to dedicate new play area; Humana Chairman and CEO Mike McCallister and local dignitaries are scheduled to attend. |
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(Note: all times approximate) |
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WHERE: |
Ruth Rothkopf Park | |||||||
| 6800 NW 44th Street | ||||||||
| Lauderhill, FL 33313 | ||||||||
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VISUALS: |
Before and after shots of the site; | |||||||
| Volunteers assembling brightly colored playground equipment; | ||||||||
| Volunteers moving 43,740 square feet of safety surfacing by hand; | ||||||||
| Ribbon-cutting ceremony to dedicate the playground. | ||||||||
City of Lauderhill
The City of Lauderhill is a municipal government located in the center of Broward County, Florida, USA. Our mission is to make the City of Lauderhill a secure, clean and desirable place to live, work and visit by providing for a continually improving wide range of city services; to encourage a community that retains and promotes employment opportunities, economic growth and improved quality of life, where people of diverse cultural backgrounds and incomes peacefully interrelate.
Florida Introduces Physical Activity and Nutrition to Youth
Florida Introduces Physical Activity and Nutrition to Youth (FLIPANY), a community based non-profit organization, provides affordable physical activity and nutrition education to low-income youth and their families. The only agency of its kind in South Florida, FLIPANY has been instrumental in helping the community recognize the importance of their health, how to make healthy lifestyle choices, and the critical role nutrition and physical activity plays in the health and development of children. To date, FLIPANY’s registered dietitians and certified fitness professionals have educated over 30,000 participants, worked with over 500 volunteers and partnered with more than 60 community agencies to get Floridians eating healthy and moving daily. For more information or to make a donation, call 954-636-2388 or visit www.FLIPANY.org.
Humana
Humana Inc., headquartered in Louisville, Ky., is a leading health care company that offers a wide range of insurance products and health and wellness services that incorporate an integrated approach to lifelong well-being. By leveraging the strengths of its core businesses, Humana believes it can better explore opportunities for existing and emerging adjacencies in health care that can further enhance wellness opportunities for the millions of people across the nation with whom the company has relationships. For more information, visit www.humana.com.
KaBOOM!
KaBOOM! is the national non-profit dedicated to saving play. Children today spend less time playing outdoors than any previous generation, a fact that is having disastrous consequences on their health, achievement levels, and overall well-being. To fight this Play Deficit, social entrepreneur Darell Hammond founded non-profit KaBOOM! 15 years ago in Washington, D.C. with a vision of creating a great place to play within walking distance of every child in America. Since then, KaBOOM! has mapped over 85,000 places to play, built more than 2,000 playgrounds, and successfully advocated for play policies in hundreds of cities across the country. KaBOOM! also provides communities with online tools to self-organize and take action to support play on both a local and national level. Hammond chronicles the founding of the organization and the importance of the cause of play in his The New York Times Best Seller KaBOOM!: How One Man Built a Movement to Save Play. The book details how businesses and communities can work together to save play for children across the country. All author proceeds support KaBOOM!. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., KaBOOM! also has offices in Chicago and San Mateo, Calif. For more information, visit www.kaboom.org.
Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=6808742&lang=en
CONTACT:
City of Lauderhill:
Leslie Johnson, 954-730-3000
[email protected]
or
Humana:
Nancy Hanewinckel, 941-320-5271
[email protected]
or
FLIPANY:
Jennifer Hoffman, 954-608-7309
[email protected]
or
KaBOOM!:
Mike Vietti, 785-320-2137
[email protected]
KEYWORDS: United States North America Florida Kentucky
INDUSTRY KEYWORDS: Seniors Health Fitness & Nutrition Professional Services Children Insurance Consumer Family Managed Care
MEDIA:
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