In a combination of popularity, and publicity, our group has been featured on the blog  http://ourdreamplayground.org/.  Click on the link to check out the site and see how donations are going (or donate yourself)  (or link to your facebook page so others can donate)

We are ecstatic to announce that we got the Kaboom grant!  15 thousand dollars toward the goal!

Thank you to everyone who voted even once (and especially to those who faithfully voted every day), to those who raised awareness in the community, shared on their facebook pages, or got local radio stations and malls involved. 

This is a great victory and we as a community should feel proud.

As some of you may have heard, the playground will be dedicated to
Mrs. Papi, who just retired from teaching second grade after 48 years at the Welch School. 

There will be a dedication ceremony on Wednesday, June 20th at noon. There
will be light refreshments provided.  Please join us if you can!

If you are able to help with set up, contact Dr. Nappi at the school or drop by at 10:30am...

(And please don't forget to keep voting on Facebook!  Still in third place!)

Thanks to all of you who have voted and are voting (again, you can vote once a day and voting is open until June 22).  We are currently in third place! 

That's a great job, but we can't let success go to our heads- keep voting, keep telling more people, and ask those close to you to post it on THEIR Facebook wall.

I'm going to keep this simple.  If you are reading this blog you care about getting Welch kids a new playground.  And so, you need to go here and vote.  Every day.  You can vote once a day until June 22nd.

For right now, it is only available to those of you with Facebook.  But, of course, Facebook is free to get.  While I stop short of suggesting that you get Facebook JUST for this contest, you wouldn't lose any money doing it, at least.

There are 10 videos.  5 will be chosen for $15K grants. 

Now get out there and VOTE!  (And tell your friends, family, and anyone else you know who might vote).

Recent Fundraisers:

o Flower Power
o Chuck E Cheese
o Prince Pizza
o Spring Dance
o All the ‘days’ (sunglasses, slippers, etc.)
o Bake sale

All told these raised over $1,000.

*******

Upcoming events include:

o The Barnes and Noble Bookfair on May 24th.  We need readers!
o Clean up day on Sept 15th.
o Auction – we are aiming for November 3rd
o Planning on a Carnival mid September
o B&N again in the fall
o Chuck E Cheese/Wendy’s Dine Out Nights during the summer

*******
Kaboom!

Good news!  We've made it to the next round in the Kaboom! video competition.  Now is where YOU come in!  We need people to sign up with Kaboom! 

• Go to www.ourdreamplayground.org
• Click on the 'Sign Up' in the upper right hand corner.
• Make sure to find our project to attach yourself to
• Once you have done this, you'll need to go back in and Edit your Profile and add a picture if you are joining one of the 'teams'.
  

The more people willing to join teams, the more points for us!
Please sign up your spouses too.

Some people have been trying to join as "team members" and not just as volunteers.  When you get to the screen that says "Volunteer -Lend a Hand to a Project near you" - you have the option to either RSVP for the build day, or Join the planning committee. If you Join the planning committee, you will put on a team, and automatically put in for the build day. If you just rsvp you are not on a team.

Please let Devin know if you get error messages, she can pass them on to Kaboom!

Check out this article on Boston.com which mentions the Playground Committee along with other Peabody volunteers.  Good work, team!