Alexandra’s Playground: 2010

We want to begin by saying thank you to our donors, volunteers, partners and Board Members.

Your support has helped Alexandra’s Playground to grow and evolve. Our mission is to raise awareness about the importance of childhood play and to provide opportunities for children to be physically-active and socially-interactive, opportunities which are increasingly threatened in our modern society. Alexandra’s Playground is founded on the principle that active play leads to the nurturing of the spirit, and by extension, to the nurturing of young bodies and minds.

Alexandra’s Playground has now completed its first year, and it was a busy one. We hired a summer intern, Risa Rifkind, and began to develop the infrastructure of our nonprofit organization. Managing the nuts and bolts – mailing lists, accounting, nonprofit requirements etc- was new to us, and we are there.

Our Founding Board worked hard on focusing our efforts in our first year. Much time was spent understanding the landscape in this area. The depth of the challenge is staggering.

Playgrounds are rapidly disappearing and children are less active than ever in history. Children now spend an average of 6 hours per day in front of a “screen” – television , video games and computers. Childhood and adolescent obesity has nearly tripled over the last twenty years, accounting for an estimated 300,000 preventable deaths, and untold morbidity. Many attribute the increase in television, gaming and internet exposure, and concomitant decrease in true socialization, to the explosion in behavioral problems seen in youth today.

The problem has not gone unnoticed. In truth, many great organizations have focused efforts on making a difference here on so many levels. Earlier in 2010, Michele Obama unveiled her

“Let’s Move” campaign aimed at reducing the epidemic of childhood obesity and fostering healthy lifestyles. In exploratory interviews earlier in the year, we met with Andrea Wenner who heads Out 2 Play (http://www.out2play.org/), and whose non-profit has built over 100 playground in NYC!

In looking at the science out there, it’s clear that activity patterns are set very early in life, one of the reasons that Alexandra’s Playground chose to support the New York Road Runners Mighty Milers program this year (http://www.nyrrf.org/programs/mighty_milers/index.asp). In fact, Alexandra’s Playground was selected as one of the official charities of the New York Half Marathon, and we will be fielding a team on March 20th as a fundraising event.

We also need to extend a special thank you to Audra Rox, a highly acclaimed band that has taken over the NY kids music scene (http://www.audrarox.com/index.php). Their generosity of spirit last spring was directly responsible for our immensely successful fundraiser. Watching nearly 100 kids jump, dance and sing to each other was a true testament to what Alexandra’s Playground is about.

Finally, we are just back from the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons meeting in San Diego where we sponsored and led a team in the annual playground build. Watching the playground rise out of dust was inspiring (and gave us lots of food for thought).

As we reflect on the past year, we are extremely proud of what Alexandra’s Playground has accomplished, yet there is so much more to do. On behalf of our Board and our many supporters, let me express my profound gratitude for all of your efforts and continued support.

501c3 federal tax ID # 27-1041088