Magic Build Playground for Local Youth
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March 6, 2009
ORLANDO -- The Magic have made a committed effort this season to ensure that they would have a championship contender on the court.
But they have also been equally active in the community in order to guarantee that local children have that same chance at success.
The Magic continued their on-going effort in the community on Thursday as their staff, Orlando Magic Dancers and players Dwight Howard, Rashard Lewis and Rafer Alston teamed up with the City of Orlando, local volunteers and KaBOOM! to build a new playground at the John H. Jackson Community Center, providing hundreds of children in Parramore with a safe place to play.
“To see a full team out here for this, it’s very important to a community,” City Commissioner District 5 Daisy W. Lynum said during the build. “It’s even more important to a community that feels it has been neglected.”
The volunteers spent the day completing all facets of the construction, from assembling the playground structure to pouring concrete and seemingly moving mountains of mulch.
Players and staff members also took the time to engage in activities with the local children, competing in organized games such as kickball.
“It's always worth it to do stuff like this especially for the community,” Magic All-Star forward Rashard Lewis said. “They support us in a tremendous way. We always want to give back to the community and come out here so they can see us as people and not just players running up and down the basketball court.”
The Magic’s dedication to improving the surrounding community is not lost on its most recent member.
Point guard Rafer Alston was extremely excited about his new organization’s commitment to improving the lives of local children.
“It feels great,” he said. “I think I’m going to fly them all out to New York and start building some playgrounds out there too.”
If anyone knows about the importance of having a safe place for kids to play, it’s Alston. As a youth he spent a considerable amount of time on the playgrounds, developing his basketball game, which turned him into one of the most famous streetball legends of all-time.
“I grew up and lived in the playgrounds,” Alston said during the build. “My mom had to come and get me from the park every day. I can only imagine when this is done how the kids are going to feel and how happy they are going to be to have somewhere to come to.”
The Magic have seen their efforts in Parramore succeed before.
After renovating the Parramore Kidz Zone Teen Shack last summer, Orlando Magic Chief Operating Officer Alex Martins pointed out that they watched as the juvenile crime rate dropped more than 47 percent in the neighborhood.
It’s an effort they’re hoping to extend especially with the Magic building a new Events Center in the heart of downtown Orlando.
“It’s really important for us to go out and give back to the community that has done so much for us and supported our team,” Martins explained. “This year in particular it’s important for us to build this playground here, because we have made a commitment to revitalize and rebuild Parramore due to the fact that we are building our new Events Center here.”
For Community Ambassador Nick Anderson, the Magic’s effort to improve the Parramore area comes as no surprise.
Because as he puts it, “being in the community is what (this organization) stands for.”
