Designing a Playground with Tom Wilson

Washington Capitals right wing Tom Wilson participated in a playground designing session with three- to five-year-old children from Bright Beginnings in southeast Washington, D.C., on Sept. 17. Monumental Sports & Entertainment Foundation, the charitable arm of the Washington Capitals, is funding an MSE-themed playground in partnership with KaBOOM! to be built at the Bright Beginnings Pre-K 3/4 Center in November. The play space will feature logos from the Washington Capitals, Wizards and Mystics, along with the Capital City Go-Go.

Upon his arrival, Wilson greeted the children, who were just waking up from their afternoon naps. They did some brief stretching together and then Wilson read The Hungry Caterpillar. Next, the children drew their dream playgrounds and talked about what pieces of equipment they want to see on their new playground. Elements from the drawings will be incorporated into the final design for the new community playground.

The playground will be the sixth built with involvement by Monumental Sports & Entertainment Foundation and its teams.
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Bright Beginnings

Bright Beginnings, Inc. is a nonprofit that operates child and family development centers for homeless children whose families are in crisis shelters or transitional housing in Washington, D.C. The centers offer free, full-day, year-round and developmentally-appropriate childcare and early childhood education for children aged six weeks to five-years-old.

Bright Beginnings was established in 1990 by the Junior League of Washington to provide quality childcare to homeless families in Washington, D.C. For more than 27 years, Bright Beginnings has helped thousands of homeless children by providing them and their families with quality care and support during times of hardship and transition. In 2014, Bright Beginnings pioneered the first home-based program in the country with the sole focus of supporting homeless families. Through programs such as this, Bright Beginnings' team members have provided hundreds of homeless Washingtonians living in shelters and transitional housing with the same high-quality family and educational support we offer in our centers.
KaBOOM!

KaBOOM! is the national nonprofit dedicated to giving all kids - especially those living in poverty - the childhood they deserve through great, safe places to play. KaBOOM! inspires communities to make play the easy choice and works to drive the national discussion about the importance of PLAYces. KaBOOM! has collaborated with partners to build or restore more than 17,000 playspaces, engaged more than 1.5 million volunteers and served more than 9 million kids. To learn why play matters for all kids, visit
kaboom.org
and join the conversation at

,
facebook.com/kaboom
, and
instagram.com/kaboom
. #playmatters #PLAYceforKids

Monumental Sports & Entertainment Foundation

Created in 2013, Monumental Sports & Entertainment Foundation supports the charitable efforts of the Washington Capitals, Mystics, Valor and Wizards; Capital City Go-Go; and Baltimore Brigade. The charitable initiatives of these teams fall under the Monumental Sports & Entertainment umbrella, as aligning their causes and unifying their giving enables us to have the greatest impact on our community. MSE Foundation is committed to the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area and focuses on the following five pillars to maximize its impact and engagement with the community: youth basketball, football and hockey; education and scholarship; pediatric health and fitness; military and veterans' affairs; and hunger and homelessness.