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- Sun Mar 15, 2015 11:23 pm #390

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WorldLegacy, June 15 2013. The Jordan Child and Family Enrichment Center, 1305 Glenwood Avenue, Raleigh, NC, is receiving an extreme makeover of their playground. Members of the NC144 Leadership Team from WorldLegacy in Chapel Hill, NC are partnering with the Jordan Child and Family Enrichment Center to revitalize and enhance the playground to incorporate environmental elements that inspire a profound connection between the children and their environment and foster in them a sense of love and abundance.

This project is a part of WorldLegacy’s three month leadership development program. This playground project will provide the Center’s preschoolers with a remodeled greenhouse and new storage facility for toys, child-friendly ground cover, an expanded sandbox with fossil toys, a sunflower garden along with other flowers and improved play structures. What makes this project unique is that WorldLegacy Leadership team must design the project start to finish, cannot use any of their own money, must involve the community to do 75% of the work and also have it complete in a two days!

WorldLegacy teams focus on projects that benefit children, environment, animals, elderly, family, health, youth and world community. Team NC144 selected the Jordan Center playground renovation through an application process that examined need, potential and philosophical fit.

The Jordan Center is such a cherished location for the hundreds of orphans who have grown up on that land, it is an honor to be able to establish the kind of love and connection at it was always meant to maintain.

The magic of incorporating mentally, physically and financially challenged children together with typical children will be reflected in the environment that we are creating. These playgrounds that inspire children and honor the environment will give these families and the community a sanctuary that will live in the hearts of every soul that has set foot on the grounds.

Methodist Home for Children opened the five-star Jordan Child and Family Enrichment Center in 2001 to provide high-quality childcare and early intervention for typical and atypically developing preschoolers who have delays or are at-risk for school failure.
The NC144 Leadership team requests your help to make this “Extreme Makeover” project possible the weekend starting June 15, 2013 at 8:00 am Eastern Time extending through Sunday June 16, 2013. We will start each workday at 8:00 am on Saturday and Sunday. Everyone is invited to come out, make a difference, and make this vision become a reality. The playground project will send a powerful message to these children that they matter, are loved and are valued. Join us Saturday or Sunday and see how passionate everyone is in making a difference for these children’s lives! We will be celebrating the completion of the project with a ribbon cutting ceremony on Monday, June 24 from 4:00 – 5:00 pm.

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- Mon Mar 16, 2015 1:46 am #391 Volunteers transform a playground
2-day makeover revives sanctuary for children with disabilities
Amanda James
Staff Writer
PUBLICATION: News & Observer, The (Raleigh, NC)
SECTION: Local News
DATE: June 17, 2013
By Amanda James
ajames@newsobserver.com

RALEIGH In a span of two days, volunteers transformed a run-down playground for children with disabilities into an outdoor sanctuary, with interactive games that teach them about the environment.
Nearly 80 volunteers worked on Saturday and Sunday at the Jordan Child and Family Enrichment Center on Glenwood Avenue, a place for 3- to 5-year-olds that is owned the by the Methodist Home for Children.
Teams cultivated a sunflower garden, built a shed for toys, created a greenhouse, and upgraded a sandbox to include a dinosaur fossil that children can excavate.
The team was led by a group from WorldLegacy, a Chapel Hill-based company focused on teaching self-improvement.

"Here the kids can see sunflowers growing, and they can learn about being responsible so they will take care of the environment," said Danielle Taleas, who is a part of the team from WorldLegacy.

The project, valued at $40,000, relied completely on donations, including supplies from Lowe's and Home Depot.

When the volunteers arrived, they found a shed that resembled a playhouse, filled with toys, and covered with mildew on the inside.

The team took off the roof of the playhouse and put greenhouse paneling on top. They cleared out all of the mildew, and put trays of plants inside. Now, cantaloupe, peas and watermelon are ready to come to life.

Katherine Hutchens is the director of the Jordan Center. She said that the teachers there will incorporate the environmental learning aspects of the playground into their classes.

"Teaching them how to take care of a plant or an animal teaches them empathy," Hutchens said.

There are 158 children enrolled at the center, which opened 12 years ago. It is an integrated learning center, where half of the children are able to attend through subsidies, and the other half are from families who can pay out of pocket.

"We prioritize families with a need," Hutchens said. That could range from a financial need, or it could mean a child who has a learning or physical disability.

Hutchens said a 3-year-old girl with spina bifida at the center is about to get her first wheelchair. She will get to play on the playground because it's been resurfaced to be accessible for children with disabilities.

Overgrown bushes, remnants of broken toys, and dangerous sticks dotted the grounds before the group arrived.

"We had a whole folder of hopes and dreams of what the playground needed that was just waiting to be fulfilled, and then the group called and said they'd like to make it happen," Hutchens said.

Their teaching model, used as a training model for other child development centers, focuses on children's being involved, experimenting, and seeing a lesson first-hand, rather than being told how something works. It also teaches children how to care for others.

"We teach them to not just say they are sorry if they hurt someone's feelings, we teach them to go ask the other person if they are OK, and ask them what they need," Hutchens said.

The group from WorldLegacy that organized the project has a similar focus on developing compassion, but works with adults. The group included six people from N.C. 144, the 144th team to go through the leadership program at the life-coaching company.

The company has different sessions that people pay to attend. Part of the process includes "breakthrough trainings" that participants say help them to change their negative thinking patterns.

Many of the team members said the program helped them see how they could be helpful to others.

"It's about being of service to others and being able to make a difference," said Joey Cassiba, 50. Cassiba finished his leadership training three years ago but still likes to help out with each team's group projects.