Plan to Play This September

It's a block party, a backyard barbecue, and a day of service all rolled into one!

A KaBOOM! Play Day is a free, fun-for-the-whole-family outdoor event that celebrates play. It’s a day for the whole community to gather at a favorite park or playground and--play! During the month of September, KaBOOM! will help thousands of communities nationwide to plan, organize and execute their Play Days.

Fun activities for kids of all ages are a big part of KaBOOM! Play Days, but they’re not all fun and games. Play Days are also an opportunity for communities to come together to improve their local parks and playspaces with clean-ups and simple enhancement and construction projects.

Members of Columbia's new Play Commission will be organizing the community's first Play Day over the summer. The fun is slated to pop out Tuesday, September 29th. What will Columbia's Play Day be about? The decision is still in the making...

Help celebrate play in Columbia--use the widget below to register!

Play is Serious Work

A pioneer in research on play, Stuart Brown says humor, games, roughhousing, flirtation and fantasy are more than just fun. Plenty of play in childhood makes for happy, smart adults--and keeping it up can make people smarter at any age.

Brown came to research play through research on murderers--unlikely as that seems--after he found a stunning common thread in killers' stories: lack of play in childhood. Since then, he's interviewed thousands of people to catalog their relationships with play, noting a strong correlation between success and playful activity.

Follow the links to hear Brown discuss the importance of play to human development and discover the National Institute for Play.

What's a Citizen To Do?

How can all the citizens of Columbia participate in the process of improving play? What are some good ways to get involved? Here are some ideas:

• Follow this blog (click on the button to the right) and make comments;
• Attend meetings of the Play Commission (the first one is Tuesday evening, June 30th, at City Hall) and voice your opinions;
• Become a fan of the Columbia Play Commission on Facebook and make comments there;
• Join the National Campaign for Play sponsored by KaBOOM! (see links to right);
• Visit the Playspace Finder (link to the right) and offer your opinions about Columbia's public playspaces;
• Make a call, send an email or a letter to Paul Ellis, staff for the Commission.

The Play Commission is seeking support from the broader community--public input from all of these sources will be shared at each Commisison meeting.

Sounds Like A Plan

Members of the Play Commission at their first meeting on June 30th will finalize this year's "action plan for play"--a document that will identify specific, implementable steps that work towards improving quality of, quantity of and access to play opportunities within the community.

Quantity is defined as the number of usable playspaces, quality is the subjective factors that make playspaces engaging, exciting, interesting, and fun, and access is both ability to get to a playspace (roads, trails) and a lack of barriers (cost, safety, traffic, buildings, equity).

The draft action plan currently presents nine meaningful action items that must be completed between the period of June 1, 2009 and May 1, 2010. Those items include:

• Investigate opportunities for holiday/summer use of school playspaces;
• Assist school district with plans to redevelop playspace at Rapp St. school;
• Initiate a planning process that better incorporates needs of preschool kids;
• Improve signage to the Meadow Ridge Park playspace;
• Add one or more pavilions adjacent to playspaces; and
• Identify and design a playspace for seniors.

The action plan will be open for public comment after it is finalized by the Play Commission and before its adoption by the Columbia City Council.

Local Champions for Play

Columbia's Play Commission--a group of nine local citizens who are charged with being champions for play--will hold its inaugural meeting at City Hall on the evening of June 30th.

At that first meeting, Commissioners will review their responsibilities, elect officers, review and finalize this year's action plan, and begin planning for Play Day 2009.

The meeting, which begins at 7:00 p.m., is open to the public.

The members of the Play Commission are:

• Jeff Cernicek, representing the Monroe County YMCA;
• Heather Hemmer;
• Susan Miller, representing the Girl Scouts of America;
• Sharon Redinger;
• William Seibel;
• Ed Settles, representing Columbia Unit School District 4;
• John Traube;
• Dan Woelfel; and
• Shannon Zarek.

The group will have ongoing assistance from the professional staff of the City's Community & Economic Development Department.

Keeping Commitments

Communities become Playful City USA communities by meeting five principal commitments:

• Creating a local play commission;
• Designing an annual action plan for play;
• Conducting a playspace audit of all publicly accessible play areas;
• Identifying current spending on capital projects and maintenance of playspaces;
• Proclaiming and celebrating an annual "KaBOOM! Play Day".

This blog will continue to update progress over time on all five commitments. For now, here's a snapshot:

• On May 19th, Resolution 02-2009 established Columbia's Play Commission with nine members;
• A draft action plan has been developed and will be refined by the Play Commission at their inaugural meeting later this month;
• Six local playspaces have been identified and evaluated--community members will be encouraged to add their comments online;
• City staff has reported that Columbia and its local school district together spend about $243,000 annually on 102 acres of parks and open spaces;
• Columbia's first annual "Play Day" is scheduled for Tuesday, September 29th.