Caps Players & Fans Take On a Playground in Alexandria (and Win!)
It was a sea of red today in Old Town Alexandria, where Mike Green, Nicklas Backstrom, and Brooks Laich were joined by over 200 volunteers in this year’s So Kids Can project. Over the course of six hours, a new S.T.A.R.S. playground was constructed.
Green has been involved in So Kids Can since founding the award-winning organization in 2008 with Elliot Segal (host of Elliot in the Morning on DC101). This is the second year that the charity has been involved in a playground project in partnership with the nonprofit KaBOOM, a charity which focuses on improving communities by building safe play spaces. The playground itself was designed with the help of local children, who participated in a Design Day on August 15.
Backstrom and Laich are more recent additions to So Kids Can, joining the cause in the past year. Both were involved in pushing for an Alexandria location for this year’s playground, and Laich spoke at the ribbon-cutting ceremony about the importance of giving back to the community that all three of the players now call home during the NHL season. As part of the cooperative project, the Alexandria Redevelopment & Housing Authority (ARHA) contributed both manpower and supplies to the effort.
While the local youngsters were thrilled to see all of the new equipment this afternoon when they arrived home from school, they’re going to have to wait a few days for the cement to set before it’s safe to use.
Several hundred local children are expected to benefit from the new playground, located on the 500 block of N. Royal Street in Alexandria. In addition to the construction of play equipment, several small projects were completed to benefit the Ruby Tucker Community Center, including the assembly of easels and storage containers.
Below, you’ll find a few more photos from today’s event. The rest can be found here on the author’s flickr.