Download KaBOOM!: How One Man Built a Movement to Save Play AudioBook Free
In 1995, Darell Hammond read an article in the Washington Post about an unthinkable tragedy: Two small children suffocated in a car over a hot summertime day in southeast Washington, D.C. The storyplot indicated that the children had nowhere that can be played; in the absence of a playground, they had climbed into an empty car. Reading the article fueled Hammond's sense of injustice, and his life's objective came into focus. Hammond founded KaBOOM!, a national nonprofit that provides neighborhoods with tools, resources, and instruction to create and renovate playgrounds and playspaces. In some of the toughest and poorest neighborhoods in North America, 2,000 barren spaces have been transformed by KaBOOM! and more than a million volunteers and community associates into kid-designed, fun, and imaginative places that can be played. This is the story of a guy with a perspective, a guy who believes that play is the foremost natural resource in an innovative economy and that kids need more than it. Play is not really a luxury but essential for their lives. Through effort, commitment, and the conviction that usage of a safe play environment is the essential right of most children, Hammond built a business that has handled the lives of countless children and young families. Hammond's story shows how one idealist can transform the world---and how small, civic-minded steps develop a ripple result that can convert communities and eventually the world most importantly.
