Brooke Mattapan Charter School's Huge Green Apple Day of Service Collaboration

by Scott Knox

The first of the 300 volunteers arrived at 6:30 AM on September 23rd to start the arduous task of building a playground in one day. Brooke Mattapan Charter School in conjunction with KaBOOM!, a national playground building nonprofit, planned for months their design, logistics and preparations. In addition to the support from UnitedHealthcare and the New England Patriorts, Brooke was able to purchase materials used in the build and will be used for continued playground maintenance with the GADOS Mini-Grant awarded by USGBC MA Chapter and Arrowstreet.  Check out Arrowstreet's blog for more pics and a video from the day.

The volunteers completed the construction of the playground and over a dozen side projects in just under 5 hours -- it was an amazing feat! Volunteers were separated into 15 groups with specific tasks. In addition to building the playground which included two slides, a rock climbing wall and monkey bars, the volunteers built benches, picnic tables, flower beds, and painted murals which will add to the community feel of the playground. Toward the end of the day, special guests from the New England Patriots and Revolution arrived to lend a hand and meet the students at the ribbon cutting ceremony -- even Pat Patriot rolled up his sleeves and helped out. 

Brooke scholars and the surrounding Mattapan community are so excited to have a safe, fun place to play for years to come. This would not have been possible without the support of the volunteers and donations from organizations such as USGBC MA Chapter. 

In total our project was made possible:

• 48 staff members from Brooke Mattapan contributed to the build in one shape or form: recruiting volunteers, lending tools, helping with student thank you notes, etc.
• 300 volunteers (parents, Brooke supporters, corporate volunteers)