We’re ready to build a playground at Walker!!! With many thanks to Charlottesville City Schools and the City of Charlottesville for helping us meet our final fundraising challenge.
A few quotes from our online public survey and social media about how much a Walker playground means to our community:
- “I would just like to say thank you for getting a playground for Walker. At recess I would mostly just walk around, feeling bored.”
- “Play matters! Thanks for making a playground at Walker a reality!”
- “I wish you did this when I was there.”
- “This is a really important project. Thank you for doing it.”
- “My daughter is a rising 5th grader. The playground has made her SO excited about heading to Walker. It really is about SO much more than a playground. It is about social emotional health at a time when our children truly need that kind of support after the year we’ve had.”
This investment by our community in Walker is incredibly important. Walker principal Dr. Adam Hastings likes to say, “Walker is the first place in Cville where we ask 700 of our neighbors to get along.” The percentage of Walker students who are of Black, Hispanic, Asian, American Indian, Native Hawaiian race or ethnicity is higher than the CCS citywide average. Walker also has a higher percentage of students who are economically disadvantaged.
The Walker playground is one of the most cost-effective tools we could possibly have for supporting students’ health + academic achievement (research shows more physical activity results in better academic outcomes!), annually providing at least 75 hours of service per student. This project started because in 2018, students at Walker identified a playground as one of the top things they wanted to make their school better. We are so glad and grateful our community listened and made it happen.
aplaygroundforwalkerblog.com 