[December 07, 2014]

Volunteers Build Playground at Jack and Jill Children's Center in Fort Lauderdale

More than 200 UnitedHealthcare employees and volunteers from the Fort Lauderdale area joined yesterday to build a new playground at Jack and Jill Children's Center.

More than 200 UnitedHealthcare employees and volunteers from the Fort Lauderdale area joined for the ribbon cutting on the new playground at Jack and Jill Children's Center. The new 2,500-square-foot playground is the 16th created by KaBOOM!, a national nonprofit organization that helps bring balanced and active play into the daily lives of all children, and UnitedHealthcare (Photo: GDeCardenas Photography).

The new 2,500-square-foot playground includes a Cozy Cocoon, Playdozer, Pup Tent and more. The playground's design is based on drawings created by children from Jack and Jill Children's Center who participated in a "design day" event in October.

The former playground had been damaged by age and vandalism. Moveable pieces were missing, and swings have been stolen. The new playground will give more than 250 kids in Fort Lauderdale a modern and safe place to play.

The volunteers worked with KaBOOM!, a national nonprofit organization that helps bring balanced and active play into the daily lives of all children. The Jack and Jill playground is the 2,576^th KaBOOM!-organized build since 1996 and the 16^th created by KaBOOM! and UnitedHealthcare.

"Our new playground will provide the kids at Jack and Jill Children's Center a fun, safe place to play, learn and spend time together while being active," said Heather Siskind, executive director, Jack and Jill Children's Center. "We're very grateful to UnitedHealthcare, KaBOOM! and all the volunteers for their help in bringing the joy of play to our Center."

"UnitedHealthcare is honored to help build a playground at Jack and Jill Children's Center," said Nicholas Zaffiris, regional CEO of UnitedHealthcare. "We believe this new playground will help inspire these children to participate in healthy activities by playing and exercising outdoors."

This playgrund build is part of UnitedHealthcare's "Do Good. Live Well." program, an employee-volunteer initiative to help prevent obesity. For more information about the benefits of volunteering and to find local opportunities to get involved, visit DoGoodLiveWell.org. Follow @DoGoodLiveWell on Twitter (News - Alert) or "like" Do Good. Live Well. on Facebook.

About Jack and Jill Children's Center

Jack & Jill Children's Center helps to break the cycle of poverty for children of high-need, working families in Broward County through early childhood education services and family intervention and support. Together, families learn skills and gain knowledge that will enhance their ability to care for their families and ultimately carry their families out of poverty and into self-sufficiency.

About KaBOOM!

KaBOOM! is the national non-profit dedicated to bringing balanced and active play into the daily lives of all kids, particularly those growing up in poverty in America. Since 1996, KaBOOM! has collaborated with partners to build, open or improve nearly 16,000 playgrounds, engaged more than one million volunteers and served 7.4 million children. KaBOOM! creates great places to play, inspires communities to promote and support play, and works to drive the national discussion about the importance of play in fostering healthy lives and communities. To learn why #playmatters: visit kaboom.org or join the conversation at twitter.com/kaboom or facebook.com/kaboom.

About UnitedHealthcare

UnitedHealthcare is dedicated to helping people nationwide live healthier lives by simplifying the health care experience, meeting consumer health and wellness needs, and sustaining trusted relationships with care providers. The company offers the full spectrum of health benefit programs for individuals, employers, military service members, retirees and their families, and Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, and contracts directly with more than 800,000 physicians and care professionals, and 6,000 hospitals and other care facilities nationwide. Globally, UnitedHealthcare serves 45 million people in health benefits and is one of the businesses of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH), a diversified Fortune 50 health and well-being company. For more information, visit UnitedHealthcare at www.uhc.com or follow @myUHC on Twitter.

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Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/multimedia/home/20141207005025/en/

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