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Youngster's idea is a lot of fun

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BY YVETTE C. HAMMETT

yhammett@tampatrib.com

Published: November 4, 2009

BRANDON - Brightly colored game-top tables, a swirling orange slide and bright green play bars all went up at A Kid's Place on Oct. 24.

Volunteers swarmed like bees on a mission, hammering, hauling mulch, mixing concrete and drilling. In six hours, they transformed a flat sand yard into a Kaboom! playground. The play site will almost certainly be a welcome diversion for the foster children and their siblings who temporarily call the place home.

Some 250 volunteers converged on the group foster home to erect the special play area, thanks to $50,000 in grant money from Bank of America's Community Foundation and $7,500 from Little Red Wagon Foundation, headed by Valrico's own young entrepreneur Zach Bonner.

It was actually 11-year-old Zach who came up with the idea for the playground. He wanted to do something special for youngsters and their siblings who, by no fault of their own, end up in foster care.

When Bank of America found out about the project, its foundation pitched in money and 150 volunteers to get it done. Leadership Tampa sent 100 more.

"We had done a Kaboom! playground last year at the Boys & Girls Club off 56th Street, and the employees who volunteered wanted to do another one," said Bill Goede, marketing president for Tampa Bay Bank of America.

Zach got a committee of kids together to design the playground, and the project was off and running.

"Our members organized this from a completely vacant lot this morning, and in six hours we can give back by building this amazing playground," Goede said.

"It was all so very organized, it was amazing," said Dottie Berger MacKinnon, founder of A Kid's Place and Joshua House in Tampa. She gushed over Zach's efforts and the plan the kids' committee came up with.

"Most of the people here today have never worked on any kind of project like this," said Bridgette Robertson, community manager of Kids Charity of Tampa Bay. "It takes you outside your comfort zone, but it brought together a lot of people in the community."

A Kid's Place is on Lithia-Pinecrest Road.

Reporter Yvette C. Hammett can be reached at (813) 627-4763.

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