Community Volunteers Come Together to Create Playground at Plumley Village for Worcester Children

WORCESTER, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--New England Patriots players will join more than 200 volunteers today from UnitedHealthcare, the New England Patriots Charitable Foundation, The Community Builders, Inc., and Worcester residents to build a new playground at Plumley Village.

“Creating a safe, fun outdoor space where families can gather and children can play together is another important way this community is fulfilling its vision for success.”

The volunteers are working with KaBOOM!, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to saving play by providing a great place to play within walking distance of every child in America. The Worcester playground, one of more than 150 such projects led by KaBOOM this year, will be the eighth playground created by KaBOOM! and UnitedHealthcare as part of the latter’s “Do Good. Live Well.” program, an employee-volunteer initiative to prevent hunger, diabetes and obesity.

The new 2,600-square-foot playground will include swing sets, a 360-degree spiral slide, horizontal loop ladder and RockBlocks™ Climber. The playground’s design is based on drawings created by Worcester children who participated in a “design day” event in July.

“We’re excited that our third playground build with UnitedHealthcare will benefit children in Worcester, where we enjoy business, family and philanthropic ties,” said Josh Kraft, president of the New England Patriots Charitable Foundation. “Watching the amazing transformation that occurs over a single day and seeing Patriots players doing their part to pitch in makes this now annual event one of our favorites each year.”

“The Community Builders, Inc., is proud to work with KaBOOM!, United Healthcare and the New England Patriots to bring a new playground to our Plumley Village community,” said Talmira Hill, vice president of Community Life for The Community Builders, Inc. “Creating a safe, fun outdoor space where families can gather and children can play together is another important way this community is fulfilling its vision for success.”

“UnitedHealthcare is grateful for the opportunity to partner with the New England Patriots Charitable Foundation, The Community Builders, Inc., and Worcester residents to help ensure that area children have an opportunity to play and exercise outdoors,” said Steve King, president, Northeast Region, UnitedHealthcare Medicare & Retirement. “We want to do all we can to help the children of Worcester live healthier lives.”

UnitedHealthcare has built playgrounds for children in Atlanta; Los Angeles; Minneapolis; Dallas and Austin, Texas. Previous UnitedHealthcare playground builds with the Patriots took place in Waltham, Mass., and Providence, R.I.

For more information about the benefits of volunteering and to find local opportunities to get involved, visit DoGoodLiveWell.org. Follow @DoGoodLiveWell on Twitter or "like" Do Good. Live Well. on Facebook.

About the New England Patriots Charitable Foundation
The New England Patriots Charitable Foundation is the 501(c)(3) non-profit entity created by the Kraft family to support charitable and philanthropic agencies throughout New England. This support comes in the form of direct grants, the donation of signed memorabilia to a variety of charitable causes, and from Patriots players who offer their direct support by appearing at charity functions throughout the year. Robert Kraft established the New England Patriots Charitable Foundation when he purchased the team in 1994 as a way for the organization to give back to the communities it calls home. The Foundation’s primary goal is to support programs that aid the youth and families of New England while underscoring the Kraft family’s deep commitment to philanthropic activities in the community. Over the past 18 years, the Foundation has made millions of dollars in donations to thousands of non-profit organizations throughout New England and has partnered with numerous community groups. The Foundation actively supports non-profit groups focusing on health, education, youth fitness and community enrichment while also implementing its own programs in those areas of focus. For more information about the New England Patriots Charitable Foundation, please visit www.patriots.com/community

About The Community Builders, Inc.
The Community Builders, Inc. (TCB) is the largest nonprofit developer of mixed-income housing in the United States. Our mission is to build strong communities where people of all incomes can achieve their full potential. We realize our mission by developing, financing and operating high-quality housing and implementing neighborhood self-help initiatives to drive economic opportunity for our residents. Since 1964, we have constructed or preserved over 320 affordable and mixed-income housing developments and secured over $2.5 billion in project financing from public and private sources. Today, we manage more than 100 properties in 12 states. We are headquartered in Boston with regional hubs in Chicago and Washington.

About 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! in 1996 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 89,000 places to play, built more than 2,100 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.

About UnitedHealthcare
UnitedHealthcare (www.uhc.com) is dedicated to helping people nationwide live healthier lives by simplifying the health care experience, meeting consumer health and wellness needs, and sustaining trusted relationships with care providers. The company offers the full spectrum of health benefit programs for individuals, employers and Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, and contracts directly with more than 650,000 physicians and care professionals and 5,000 hospitals nationwide. UnitedHealthcare serves more than 38 million people and is one of the businesses of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH), a diversified Fortune 50 health and well-being company.