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Risa Lavizzo-Mourey M.D., M.B.A President and CEO Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Schools and communities should not only preserve but expand opportunities for kids to play. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is supporting the national replication of Sports4Kids because this organization is effectively leveling the playing field for all children to lead happier, healthier and more successful lives.
Jill C. Vialet Founder and Executive Director Dear Friend of Sports4Kids, When we started Sports4Kids just over ten years ago, we thought that sending someone in to the local schools during lunchtime and recess was a good idea. We thought we were coming up with a good way to help a few local schools increase opportunities for kids to play. That was 1996. And now in 2006 we realize that it was much more than just a good local idea. Our mission – to improve the health and wellbeing of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play – places Sports4Kids at the fore of a significant educational movement. Teachers, parents, pediatricians, and the rest of us who care about kids are calling for an end to the disturbing decline in opportunities for play – both during and after the school day. Policy makers and community leaders alike are recognizing the need for safe and inclusive playgrounds. Enter Sports4Kids… Over the past ten years we grew from two schools to 81 in 2005-06; from a staff of one half-time person to 107 full-time employees; from programs reaching a couple hundred kids to over 32,000 kids daily. We expanded the training we’d developed for our own staff, so we could help other adults (in schools, community organizations, and youth programs) understand the critical importance of play for children’s development and learn easy strategies for making play happen. In addition to bringing play back to playgrounds in schools across the country, we sent staff to Mumbai, India, and Cape Town, South Africa, to demonstrate the transformative power of play. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina we sent staff to Houston to play with kids housed at the Astrodome – an effort to bring a little normalcy and joy to a situation otherwise devoid of it. We also launched a new program in Baltimore, and our plans for continued growth, including Boston and Washington, D.C., are ambitious and far-reaching. We learned a great deal these past ten years and had a lot of fun doing it. We have grown and changed and struggled. This annual report looks not just at the past year, but represents a decade of accomplishments. Our hope is that after you read it, you’ll understand more about who we are, where we’ve been, and where we are going. Looking back just makes me all the more convinced about the potential for Sports4Kids’ future. I invite you to join us in pursuing the grandest of visions – to make it possible for every child in this country to have the opportunity for safe, meaningful play – every day. Please read on, Jill C. Vialet Founder and Executive Director
Page 1: Annual Report 2005-06 1996-2006 Ten
Page 5 and 6: 5 5 Mary Fay LaMartina Principal Be
Page 7 and 8: PLAY IS TRANSFORMING COMMUNITIES Ch
Page 9 and 10: THE REBOUND I breathed these worrie
Page 11 and 12: Sports4Kids 2006 sources and uses o
Page 13 and 14: Sports4Kids individual donors 2005-
Page 15 and 16: Sports4Kids institutional supporter

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