Martha's Village and Kitchen Awarded $15K 'Let's Play Grant'

From Martha's Village and Kitchen: Dr Pepper Snapple (DPS) and national non-profit KaBOOM! awarded Martha’s Village & Kitchen a $15,000 Let’s Play Improvement Grant to use toward the purchase of an Imagination Playground in a Cart™, an innovative playground equipment system.

The grant, which will allow Martha’s Village & Kitchen to install the system at the Children’s Services Playground at 83791 Date Avenue, Indio, CA 92201, is part of Let’s Play, a community partnership led by Dr Pepper Snapple to get kids and families active nationwide. Imagination Playground in a Cart™ is an innovative design in play equipment that encourages creativity, communication, and collaboration in play. With a collection of custom-designed, oversized blue foam parts, Imagination PlaygroundTM provides a changing array of elements that allow children to turn their playground into a space constantly built and re-built by their imagination.

“Homeless and impoverished families live in a constant state of survival and meeting urgent needs such as food, clothing and shelter often take precedence over the psychological, physical and intellectual needs of children. However, community partners like KaBOOM! and Dr Pepper Snapple make it possible for Martha’s to support these children’s development,” said Rosa Verduzco, Senior Manager of Programs. “It is a crucial community need that Martha’s Child Development Center offer high quality care with a facility and playground that offers a stimulating, safe and nurturing environment for our children to develop.”

Martha’s onsite State-licensed Children’s Services Program provides childcare at no cost to homeless families residing at Martha’s transitional housing program as well as children from impoverished families in the community. To address the challenges often associated with homelessness and poverty, Martha’s offers continued service to residents who have successfully exited Martha’s, teen parents, grandparents raising grandchildren, families in crisis and those experiencing or witnessing domestic violence. This grant ensures that these children will have the resources necessary to develop as well as increasing their school readiness.

Unstructured, child-directed play has proven to help kids develop physically, emotionally, socially and intellectually, yet today’s kids have less time and fewer opportunities to play than any previous generation. As a result of Let’s Play grants and projects, more than 6.5 million kids will benefit from new or improved playgrounds around the nation by the end of 2020.

Dr Pepper Snapple has committed more than $35.5 million to Let’s Play through 2019, impacting youth-serving organizations across the U.S., as well as Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean. Through Let’s Play, Dr Pepper Snapple partners with two non-profit organizations, KaBOOM! and Good Sports, to build and improve playgrounds in underserved communities and provide grants for sports equipment. In this way, Dr Pepper Snapple is doing our part to help eliminate the play deficit by making active play possible for more kids.

Since its launch in 2011, Let’s Play has provided more than 10 million children with more opportunities to play via safe, accessible playgrounds and sports equipment. Moreover, by 2020 we will have engaged more than 80,000 volunteers from Dr Pepper Snapple, our partners and our communities in this effort.

Visit Let’s Play at www.LetsPlay.com to join the conversation and learn how to apply for the various available grants to make communities more active and playful.

Image via Martha's Village and Kitchen