Hundreds of Volunteers Build a 3,100-Square-Foot Playground at Boys & Girls Clubs of the Chippewa Valley
July 15 2017 - 3:00PM
Business Wire
New playground created by KaBOOM! and
UnitedHealthcare gives members at the Mary Markquart Center a safe
place to play and exercise
Today more than 200 Eau Claire residents and UnitedHealthcare
employees built a new playground at Boys & Girls Clubs of the
Chippewa Valley’s Mary Markquart Center.
Boys & Girls Club members helped design the new
3,100-square-foot playground during a “design day” event in May,
incorporating a topsy turvy spinner, track ride, hemisphere climber
and more into the design. The new playground will offer more than
1,700 kids at the Mary Markquart Center a place to play.
This playground build is part of UnitedHealthcare’s “Do Good.
Live Well.” program, an employee-volunteer initiative dedicated to
decreasing hunger and obesity, inspiring service and encouraging
volunteerism.
“UnitedHealthcare is honored to help build a playground that
will give children at the Boys & Girls Club Mary Markquart
Center a safe place to play and exercise outdoors with their
friends and families, while creating healthy habits that will last
a lifetime,” said Ellen Sexton, CEO, UnitedHealthcare Community
Plan of Wisconsin.
Last year the Mary Markquart Center moved into a new facility
that is further away from local parks, making it a challenge to
provide outdoor experiences that enable members to engage socially
and physically. The new play space will provide Club members the
opportunity to engage in healthy lifestyles and try new
activities.
“Club staff encourages members to respect each other and engage
in healthy outdoor activities to enhance their health and
well-being. Having a playground where this activity can take place
will be a tremendous benefit to Club members,” said Roxie
Schmidt-Flanders, director, Mary Markquart Center.
Volunteers worked with KaBOOM!, a national nonprofit
organization that helps bring balanced and active play into
children’s daily lives. The Eau Claire playground is the 2,954th
KaBOOM!-organized build since 1996 and the 23rd created by KaBOOM!
and UnitedHealthcare.
UnitedHealthcare serves more than 1.6 million people in
Wisconsin with a network of 155 hospitals and nearly 30,000
physicians and other care providers statewide. For more information
about the benefits of volunteering and to find opportunities to
volunteer alongside UnitedHealthcare in your community, visit
DoGoodLiveWell.org. Follow @DoGoodLiveWell on Twitter or "like" Do
Good. Live Well. on Facebook.
About Boys & Girls Clubs of the Greater Chippewa Valley –
Mary Markquart CenterThe Boys & Girls Clubs of the Greater
Chippewa Valley was established in 2001 and opened its doors in
2004. The organization currently serves four communities in western
Wisconsin - the Mary Markquart Center in Eau Claire, the Chippewa
Falls Center, the Lunda Center in Black River Falls, and the
Menomonie Center. The Clubs strive to provide activities and
experiences for members in which they might otherwise not have the
opportunity. By providing positive activities and afterschool
programming for youth ages 8-18, the Boys & Girls Club is a
strong community resource which enables young people, especially
those who need us most, to reach their full potential as
productive, caring, responsible citizens. All this is available to
the youth for just a $15 annual membership fee.
About KaBOOM!KaBOOM! is the national non-profit dedicated
to giving all kids – particularly those growing up in poverty in
America – the childhood they deserve filled with balanced and
active play, so they can thrive. Since 1996, KaBOOM! has
collaborated with partners to build, open, or improve more than
16,700 playgrounds, engaged more than one million volunteers, and
served 8.5 million kids. KaBOOM! creates great places to play,
inspires communities to promote and support play, and works to
drive the national discussion about the importance of play in
fostering healthy and productive lives. To learn why #playmatters
and why cities are embracing #playability:
visit kaboom.org or join the conversation
at twitter.com/kaboom or facebook.com/kaboom.
About UnitedHealthcareUnitedHealthcare 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, military service members, retirees and
their families, and Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, and
contracts directly with 1 million physicians and care
professionals, and 6,000 hospitals and other care facilities
nationwide. UnitedHealthcare is one of the businesses of
UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH), a diversified Fortune 50 health and
well-being company. For more information, visit UnitedHealthcare at
www.uhc.com or follow @myUHC on Twitter.
Click here to subscribe to Mobile Alerts for UnitedHealth
Group.
View source
version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170715005002/en/
UnitedHealthcareTony Marusic,
312-363-7714tony_marusic@uhc.com
UnitedHealth (NYSE:UNH)
Historical Stock Chart
From Aug 2024 to Sep 2024
UnitedHealth (NYSE:UNH)
Historical Stock Chart
From Sep 2023 to Sep 2024