Many years from now, when I am telling my grand-children stories of my life; Thursday May 20, 2010, will be a story that I will recall with many fond memories. I will describe it as the perfect day; a day when an entire community came together with the common goal of building a new park and playground for the children. I will remember a day when the laughter of children echoed throughout the park, as they ran around in anticipation of the new playground being built that they helped design. I will tell them that during this day, children blew bubbles, got their face painted, and shouted out their balloon animal of choice to ‘Dilly-Dally The Clown’. I will recount stories of how a small grou

Two children were greeted by a chain link fence surrounding Zapata Park's brand new playground Tuesday afternoon. The park at Washington Square, located in Alkali Flat on 905 E St., was scheduled to open yesterday after the cement foundation solidified. Maria Kernan, a representative of the Community Housing Opportunities Corporation regarding the park, said that the fence would be removed at noon tomorrow. Home Depot and KaBOOM!, a non-profit organization that builds playgrounds across the nation, teamed up on a project for the park that took over two months to complete. The playground was erected and the park was rejuvenated last Thursday with the help of over 250 volunteers. The pl

More than 250 volunteers from Home Depot and KaBOOM!, a nonprofit organization that builds "playspaces" across the nation, showed up at Zapata Park today to assemble a new playground designed by children and refurbish the park. The playground, located in Alkali Flat on 905 E St., was the 1,764th playground constructed by the two companies and was built for children ages 2-12. Workers also filled the playground with brand-new sawdust, painted hopscotch squares, repainted a picnic area and repainted the lines of the basketball court. The Sacramento Tree Foundation also came out and planted some trees. Kenny Altenburg, a project manager at KaBOOM! said that the project has been in the work

Residents of Washington Square and Sherwood Court now have a new playground in their own Zapata Park. Two hundred and fifty volunteers gathered at the park located at E and Ninth streets Thursday afternoon to construct a new playground. The construction was completed within five hours. A welcome sign for Kaboom and Home Depot. The new play space is thanks to the sponsorship and fundraising of The Home Depot Foundation, Kaboom and Community Housing Opportunities Corporation (CHOC). A view of construction at 11:30 a.m. of construction. Construction began at 8:30 a.m. and wrapped up at 1:30 p.m. Volunteers in orange Home Depot shirts worked to music playing over large speakers, occasion

The Sacramento Parks and Recreation department has responded to local calls for more community gardens by slating two new sites to be publicly cultivated , bringing the total number of city community gardens to seven. One of the fresh gardening plots is on the downtown grid - E and 8th in Zapata Park - and is planned to be opened to the public by the end of the year. The other is in North Oak Park and will be sprouting next spring. Locally grown produce is a burgeoning attraction for Sacramentans and Community Garden Coordinator Bill Maynard has taken note. "We've seen a dramatic increase in interest recently," he said. "In a 2008 Master Plan Development survey, more than 10 percent of su