Wheaton Park District Sends Playground to Haiti

The Wheaton Park District partnered with to send playground equipment, originally located at Northside Park, to Haiti. The playground was divided into four different units and shipped to Port Au Prince, Haiti. In January, Kids Around the World sent teams of volunteers to Haiti to install the playgrounds. The equipment was installed at four different churches.

“Only pieces of the playground equipment, such as posts, were donated and the equipment was completely inspected and refurbished by Kids Around the World. The Wheaton Park District removed the playground because it is getting to the point where some of the components break and replacements are no longer available,” stated Rob Sperl, Director of Planning for the Wheaton Park District.

Kids Around the World was founded in 1994 with the goal to provide safe play equipment for children that found themselves in situations where it was difficult to just be a "kid".  So often children find themselves as victims of situations out of their control, they become victims of economic stress, victims of political injustice, victims of natural disasters, and worst of all, victims of war. It was for these children that Kids Around the World began. Kids Around the World partners with many organizations and foundations to install the playgrounds in these devastated countries around the world.

The mission statement of the Wheaton Park District is to enrich the quality of community life through a diversity of healthy leisure pursuits and heightened appreciation for our natural world. Mike Benard, Executive Director of the Wheaton Park District acknowledged, “The Wheaton Park District was proud to donate this playground equipment to the children of Haiti. If we can make the lives of these children, who have been so devastated by these earthquakes a little brighter, then we have enriched the quality of life in a remote part of our world.”