K+5
I’m not going to get into a whole 5 year hurricane retrospective, but if you’d like one, they’re everywhere. I wasn’t sure how I wanted to commemorate the weekend, but when the neighborhood association decided to build a new Kaboom! playground for the anniversary, that seemed just about perfect. Better to get out, work with neighbors and do some lasting good rather than navel gaze, right?
This build came together much faster than the others we’ve done, because we had this very specific target date that wasn’t very far away. It seems we’re all old hands at this now- we’ve done 3 others in the neighborhood, one also with Marriott, and Kaboom! has this down to a science.
The hotel has been amazing- after things went to hell here, the Marriott family put out the call to their employees around the world and took donations to insure all of their affected employees had the money and the shelter they needed for as long as it took to get back on their feet. When everything was done, many millions of dollars were left in the pot and they’ve been using that money to fund community improvement projects where the employees who received the help do the work while the donations pay for the logistics and materials.
The organizers were out there around 6, with another 275 volunteers arriving at 8 to build a playground from the ground up in one day- not to mention making picnic table & shade structures, fixing & painting everything in sight and more. Plus the neighborhood raised well over our goal and will be able to buy the kids new football uniforms in the fall.
Kaboom!’s founder was there in person, as were Marriott execs, the police chief, City Council president and more, and everybody had the same message: Forward. I couldn’t agree more.
Although it poured for awhile in the afternoon, everybody kept at it, and even that is pretty symbolic, no?
