Project Play Offers $15K In Grants to Revitalize Alexandria Playgrounds

Project Play is giving away four playground grants to pay for new small equipment, equipment repairs and upgrades, seating and shade trees and other innovative ideas submitted by Alexandria residents.

The Project Play taskforce will award two grants of $5,000 and two grants of $2,500 to four submissions based upon the number of votes received on ACTion Alexandria and how well they align with recommendations from a recent city-wide playspace assessment report conducted by Design Concepts.

The project is a collaboration of the Alexandria Childhood Obesity Action Network, Alexandria/Arlington Smart Beginnings and ACTion Alexandria as one way to counter the area’s high obesity rates among children.

About 26.4% or approximately 100,000 children in Northern Virginia are either overweight or obese.

Among Alexandria children ages 2 to 5, 43.5% are overweight or obese.

These numbers are significantly higher compared to other children in Alexandria (23.5% of children ages 6-10; 13.1% of children ages 11-14 and 13.7% of children ages 15-18).

In Arlington, the next highest jurisdiction, 28.6% of children, ages 2-5, are overweight or obese.

Alexandrian children who are Hispanic (32.9% overweight/obese) or with income below 200 percent of the federal poverty level (29.9% overweight/obese) are particularly at risk.

The ultimate goal of Project Play is to ensure that every child in Alexandria has a quality space to play.

Anyone interested in improving Alexandria’s playgrounds, aged 18 and over, is invited to nominate their playground for a Project Play Spruce Up Grant.  To nominate your playground, visit: http://www.actionalexandria.org/project-play-spruce-up-grants.