Ultimate Play Day Coming May 15

In partnership with CitiParks and Trying Together, the Playful Pittsburgh Collaborative’s Ultimate Play Day is just around the corner! Make sure to save the date for Sunday, May 15, 2022, from 1- 4 p.m. The big event will take place at Liberty Green Park, located at 100 Larimer Ave Pittsburgh, PA 15206. Join us for this Remake Learning Days event with fun for all ages and explore the possibilities of play in partnership with other organizations around Pittsburgh. There’s bound to be something for everyone to enjoy with games, activities, art projects, live entertainment, and more! 

There’s no need to pre-register for this free event. Upon arrival, attendees should visit the registration table to pick up some Ultimate Play Day SWAG while supplies last. There will be a water station set up in the park where the water bottles can be filled and you can take on the day in a fully hydrated state of mind. 

Those who are interested can volunteer, or even provide a playful activity. To sign up, visit the Volunteer Sign Up Sheet and the Playful Vendor Form. 

For questions or concerns about the event, please feel free to reach out to Adam James at playfulpgh@tryingtogether.org. Learn more at playfulpittsburgh.org/ultimate-play-day.  

KaBOOM! Announces Let's Play Everywhere Challenge Winners

KaBOOM! recently announced the winners of the Let’s Play Everywhere Challenge. As part of the Challenge, 10 grantees in Allegheny County were selected to receive a combined total of $200,000 in prize funds. Trying Together is pleased to announce that the Playful Pittsburgh Collaborative was a awarded one of these grants for The Neighborhood Play Stop Project. Learn more about it and the other grantees below.

 Challenge Winners

The Let’s Play Everywhere Challenge selected nine organizations as winners, with a total of ten ideas:

1. Trying Together (Playful Pittsburgh Collaborative)

   • The Neighborhood Play Stop Project

2. Glassport Community Outreach, Inc.

   • Families Will Go Gaga to Play GaGa

3. Pittsburgh Fulton PTO

   • From Pittsburgh to Paris and Beyond!

4. Garfield Jubilee Association, Inc.

   • James Sensory Park

5. Grounded Strategies

   • MACS Discovery Walk

   • Race Me! Pitcairn Green Playce

6. Community Forge

   • Number Mountain

7. Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy

   • Ping Pong in the Plaza

8. UniversalWit

   • Play! to End Blight

9. Focus on Renewal

   • POW! (Place of Wonder)

The Neighborhood Play Stop Project

The Playful Pittsburgh Collaborative’s initiative, The Neighborhood Play Stop Project, will reimagine existing spaces within Hazelwood by using play stops to encourage community engagement and playful interaction. These play stops may be featured in public spaces near businesses and civic locations such as grocery stores, green spaces,  fire stations, and more. Conversations are underway to identify the finalized play stop locations.

By placing play stops in spaces that are not typically associated with play, this project will prompt community members of all ages to rethink their daily routines. For children, it’s an opportunity for imaginative play. For adults, it may be a space where they can take a mental break and play chess or engage in a calming playful activity. Similar to the Little Free Library movement, these play stops will be stewarded by various entities (the businesses where they are located, Playful Pittsburgh Collaborative member organizations, interested community members, etc.).

A CLOSER LOOK

Each stop will be based upon the common concept of play and will have playful interactive parts that relate to the location and the party stewarding the installation. For example, a stop outside a grocery store may include play items such as plastic fruits and vegetables to “purchase,” paper and pencils to create grocery lists, and laminated sheets of information about grocery store products.  However, if a stop is located outside of a fire department, their play items may include play items such as firefighter helmets, a mini fire drill tower, and fire safety facts.

Each stop will include a chalkboard with permanently affixed prompts for participants to write their thoughts. Prompts may include statement starters such as “When I play outside I like to…” or “At the grocery store I can find these colors…”

About the Challenge

The Let’s Play Everywhere Challenge is a design competition that took place in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania—presented by Keurig Dr. Pepper and KaBOOM!—to develop innovative ideas for making play easy and available for kids and families. This challenge is about creating opportunities for free, unstructured, unplanned play to ensure that all kids, no matter where they come from or where they live, get the active play they need to thrive.

Learn More

To learn more about the challenge winners and their ideas, read KaBOOM’s post.

Pop-Up Playtime in Allegheny Commons Brings People Together

Playful Tuesdays at Gus and Yiayia’s started as a way to drive business to Allegheny Commons West Park despite the West Ohio Street bridge closure. It became a way to educate people of all ages on the importance of play.

Pittsburgh Named a Playful City USA for Seventh Time

National non-profit KaBOOM! is honoring Pittsburgh with a 2017 Playful City USA designation for the seventh time. 

“The Playful Pittsburgh Collaborative is elated to be once again be named as a 2017 Playful City USA,” said Cara Ciminillo, Executive Director of The Pittsburgh Association for The Education of Young Children (PAEYC) and founder of the Playful Pittsburgh Collaborative (PPC). “The PPC and its members strive to educate members of our Pittsburgh community about the importance and benefits of play in the lives of all our neighbors, young and old, so it is truly rewarding for the City to receive this type of recognition on a national level.” 

Playful City USA honors cities and towns across the country for putting the needs of families first so kids can learn, grow, and develop important life skills. These communities are transforming ordinary places into playful spaces and using play as a solution to the challenges facing their residents.

“It is an honor for Pittsburgh to receive national recognition as a Playful City USA for the seventh year. The City of Pittsburgh is committed to ensuring that every child in our community has a healthy, safe, and playful childhood,” said City of Pittsburgh Mayor William Peduto.

You can also take part in the conversation with leaders across the country using #PLAYceforkids on Twitter and Facebook.

Read the full release here.

How to Build a Playground in Pittsburgh in Less Than a Day

They say Rome wasn’t built in a day, but it only took six hours last weekend for 200 volunteers to construct a new children's playground in Hazelwood. 

Hazelwood’s Play Trail Grows As Volunteers Build KaBOOM! Playground

More than 160 volunteers braved a nasty forecast Saturday to kick off the next phase in the ongoing economic revitalization of Pittsburgh’s Hazelwood neighborhood.

The thunderstorms never materialized, but a new playground between Lyle Street and Roma Way did. The recreational area is the main attraction of the growing Hazelwood Play Trail, which comprises a number of kid-focused, community-building areas in a 1-mile radius of the Hazelwood Branch of the Carnegie Library on Second Street. The planned 10-attraction trail already has a large gardening area tended by a local resident, and next up is the Elizabeth Street Parklet, an open space and community area to be created this fall.

“It’s not necessarily hiking through the woods, but it is like walking through the neighborhood and walking from one place to the next place with the concept of play in mind,” says Cara Ciminillo, executive director of Pittsburgh Association for the Education of Young Children (PAEYC).