At eight o’clock in the morning on Saturday, December 7, over 130 volunteers from the Boys & Girls Club of Fullerton, Foresters Financial, and the national non-profit organization KABOOM! arrived at a field in the back of the Lozano Teen Center to build a new playground.

The Teen Center, located at 410 South Richman Avenue, has a lot of programs and services tailored to support the development of teenagers in the community. In case you aren’t too familiar with the organization, The Boys & Girls Clubs of Fullerton is a non-profit committed to providing a safe and supportive environment for young people in the Fullerton area. While their teen center has a lot of workshops and activities, the only outdoor play opportunities they offered before this playground were basketball and field sports.

“There’s a desire to address childhood obesity at all ages, as well as improve the mental health of teens. The new playground has areas to climb, a ring bridge and a double slide. This thoughtful design reflects Foresters, the Lozano Teen Center, and KABOOM!’s shared commitment to creating a hub of physical activity where youth can participate in outdoor play and foster connection,” said the three organizations in a joint press release.

According to a volunteer from Foresters Financial, this project started three months ago during a special Design Day. Back in September, young people at the Fullerton Boys and Girls Club drew imaginative visions for a new playground. In collaboration with Foresters Financial and organizers from KABOOM!, these drawings from the Boys & Girls Club helped to inspire the play area’s final designs.

As quoted in a press release, Brett Ackerman, Chief Executive Officer of the Boys & Girls Club of Fullerton, said, “This new play space will provide our children with a safe and engaging space to stay active, build friendships, and create lifelong memories. It reflects our shared commitment to enriching young lives and ensuring every child in our community has the opportunity to grow and thrive, and we could not have done it without the support from Foresters.”

Foresters Financial volunteers wore turquoise t-shirts outside the Lozano Teen Center on December 7. Since I wasn’t familiar with who they are and what they do, I had to ask a few of their representatives and learned that they’re a 150-year-old global financial services provider offering life insurance here in the U.S. and abroad in Canada and in the UK. According to their website, since 2006, they have funded and built 175 different playgrounds across 101 cities in 31 states and provinces throughout North America. This new build at the Lozano Teen Center is their 175th playground.

The national non-profit is known as KABOOM! I had heard about it previously. I remember reading and researching how they partnered with the City of Fullerton to build a playground at Gilbert Park in South Fullerton for an earlier issue of this newspaper. According to the organization’s website, since 1996, KABOOM! has partnered with kids and communities to build or improve over 17,000 play spaces and ensure that nearly 12 million kids have equitable access to the crucial benefits and opportunities that play spaces offer. This new playground at the Lozano Teen Center will reportedly give more than 250 children and teens access to a great place to play.

When I arrived in the morning on December 7, I checked in with members of Foresters Financial and made my way to an open field where a giant mound of mulch was being shoveled by community high school volunteers to the play area where the foundation for the equipment was being laid. The side projects, such as manual labor and volunteers building park benches, were happening on the far end of the park.

Speaking with Brett Ackerman from the Boys & Girls Club, I learned that they had to prepare everything days in advance to basically separate each component of the park build into different stations. Some of the stations included one for mulch, one for concrete, and one for painting, but in total, I counted about eight different teams of volunteers working. They started building the playground at eight o’clock in the morning and ended at around two thirty in the afternoon.

“There are a couple of things we have to do after getting it certified before the kids can play on it,” explained Ackerman. “We have to add an ADA-accessible ramp for the kids, and then once we do that, playground certification people will come back, and hopefully, we’ll be able to open this park by the end of the year. But it’s super neat; to see a park go up in a day is a rare feat. As they say, it takes a village, and we have our village building a park today in Fullerton.”