LUCASFILM BUILDS A PLAYGROUND FOR LOCAL KIDS

Last summer, nearly 150 volunteers from Lucasfilm, Industrial Light & Magic, ABC-TV, and Disney came together at the Booker T. Washington Community Center in San Francisco. Their mission was to construct a playground that would be any kid’s dream.

The initiative was organized in collaboration with KaBoom! As a non-profit organization that spans the United States, KaBoom! constructs playgrounds and emphasizes the importance of play in the lives of children.

Volunteers split up into teams, each taking different assignments as varied as mixing cement to building climbing walls and picnic tables. Andrew Martin from Industrial Light & Magic, described his task, “I assisted in the assembly of an activity panel with noisemakers as well as the assembly of the spiral slide.”

The new “playset” installed at the Booker T. Washington Community Center is truly a dream of the children who will be enjoying it. As Martin comments, “I was intrigued and excited to hear that the playground was inspired by the designs of neighborhood children.”

Blaire Chaput, Head of Human Resources at Lucasfilm says, “It’s really meaningful to us. KaBoom! put us in touch with the Booker T. Washington Community Center, and what what we loved about it is not only what they stood for, but the fact that they’re right in our backyard. Our corporate offices for Lucasfilm are literally a mile down the road.” She added, “We have a lot of employees that live in this neighborhood…so we really wanted to do something meaningful to give back to this community.”

By day’s end, a new playground had arrived. For the volunteers, it was an opportunity to bring their inspiration home and help make a difference in the lives of local children.