KaBoom! playground built for Crisis House in El Cajon

By Maryann Marino

On Dec. 8, more than 200 El Cajon residents and UnitedHealthcare employees built a new playground at Crisis House Community Resource Center. 

Local children helped design the new 2,500-square-foot playground during a “design day” event in October, incorporating a spiral slide, sky swivels and cozy cocoon into the design. The new playground will offer nearly 4,500 kids served by the Community Resource Center a place to play.

By Maryann Marino

On Dec. 8, more than 200 El Cajon residents and UnitedHealthcare employees built a new playground at Crisis House Community Resource Center. 

Local children helped design the new 2,500-square-foot playground during a “design day” event in October, incorporating a spiral slide, sky swivels and cozy cocoon into the design. The new playground will offer nearly 4,500 kids served by the Community Resource Center a place to play.

This playground build is part of UnitedHealthcare’s “Do Good. Live Well.” program, an employee-volunteer initiative dedicated to decreasing hunger and obesity, inspiring service and encouraging volunteerism. 

“UnitedHealthcare’s employees are honored to help build a playground that will give children at Crisis House a safe place to play and exercise outdoors with their friends and families, while creating healthy habits that will last a lifetime,” said Tony Lonigro, CEO, West Region, UnitedHealthcare Military & Veterans.

For more than 45 years, the Crisis House Community Resource Center has offered services to people, including veterans, who are facing crises like homelessness, domestic violence, and mental-health or substance abuse conditions. The new play space will provide many more ways for Crisis House to serve kids and families in a safe and welcoming environment.

“When children visit Crisis House with their families for services, there has not been a truly adequate place for the kids to have fun. This new playground will provide a creative, safe and fun place for children to play while our case managers meet with their parents, right there on the playground,” said Mary Case, executive director, Crisis House.

Volunteers worked with KaBOOM! a national nonprofit organization that helps bring balanced and active play into children’s daily lives. The El Cajon playground is the 2,877th KaBOOM! organized build since 1996 and the 22nd to be created by KaBOOM! and UnitedHealthcare.

UnitedHealthcare serves more than 3.6 million people in California with a network of 364 hospitals and more than 98,000 physicians and other care providers statewide. For more information about the benefits of volunteering and to find opportunities to volunteer alongside UnitedHealthcare in your community, visit DoGoodLiveWell.org. Follow @DoGoodLiveWell on Twitter or “like” Do Good. Live Well. on Facebook.