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KaBOOM!: A Movement to Save Play
This New York Times bestseller is a powerfully moving story of a man from humble beginnings, who identified a tragic problem and figured out how to address it on a national scale.
KaBoom chronicles Darell Hammond's amazing journey from a childhood spent living in a group home in Illinois to becoming the founder and CEO of KaBOOM!, one of the most successful nonprofit organizations in the United States. KaBOOM! has raised almost $200 million, directly built 1,743 playgrounds with a million volunteers, and has touched the lives of countless children and families. More than just a memoir, KaBoom is a call to action that will inspire readers by challenging them to rethink traditional notions of community and social change.
KaBoom chronicles Darell Hammond's amazing journey from a childhood spent living in a group home in Illinois to becoming the founder and CEO of KaBOOM!, one of the most successful nonprofit organizations in the United States. KaBOOM! has raised almost $200 million, directly built 1,743 playgrounds with a million volunteers, and has touched the lives of countless children and families. More than just a memoir, KaBoom is a call to action that will inspire readers by challenging them to rethink traditional notions of community and social change.
304 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2011
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April 6, 2017
An Engaging Story About Kids, Playgrounds, and One Hugely Successful Social Entrepreneur
A little more than two years ago I found myself immersed up to my eyeballs in a new venture dedicated to fostering the spirit of play among disadvantaged children. That venture — a mission-driven, for-profit company — was the One World Futbol Project, just then founded by the husband and wife team of Tim Jahnigen and Lisa Tarver. Tim had invented an extraordinary new soccer ball that never goes flat, needs no pump or needle, and goes on playing even if it’s punctured. The Project opened for business shortly afterward during the 2010 World Cup in Johannesburg. Our goal was to distribute one million One World Futbols within three years to children and young people in refugee camps, war zones, impoverished villages, and low-income urban neighborhoods around the world.
What had drawn me to the One World Futbol Project when Tim and Lisa showed me a prototype ball late in 2009 was not the opportunity to give poor kids what would probably be their first ball to play with. For me, the Project wasn’t about play, or sports. I was drawn in by the way so many UN agencies, schools, and NGOs were using soccer as a teaching tool, offering games that helped children acquire insights and skills in conflict resolution, self-confidence, teamwork, gender equity, and HIV/AIDs awareness.
In other words, as I saw it, the One World Futbol could speed community development efforts where poor people lived. That, to me, was a no-brainer, since I’ve been concerned throughout my life with the challenges of global poverty. (Now I’m even writing a book on that topic.) As the business began organizing in the spring of 2010, I became one of four partners. Both Tim and Lisa have continued ever since to emphasize the importance of play in child development, and I even attended a presentation by Dr. Stuart Brown, one of the world’s leading authorities on play. Still, I didn’t get it.
Then I read Darell Hammond’s surprisingly powerful little book, KaBoom! I think I get it now: if kids are deprived of opportunities to play — not twiddling thumbs on video games but creating their own games and rough-housing out-of-doors — the ill effects are evident and provable in their later lives.
Less than 20 years ago, Darell co-founded KaBoom!, a nonprofit organization that builds playgrounds in disadvantaged neighborhoods in North American towns and cities. Darell himself grew up in difficult circumstances (though he didn’t see it that way), and he never finished college, but he proved himself to be a brilliant leader — enough so that he’s now Dr. Hammond, having received an honorary Doctorate from the college he briefly attended.
Since the mid-1990s, KaBoom! has built more than 2,000 playgrounds throughout North America, and it’s estimated that its training, advisory services, and online tools have enabled others to build 10 times that many over the same period. KaBoom! has become a model of social entrepreneurship and a superb example of how nonprofit leaders can equal the very best managers to be found in the private sector. These are all truly remarkable accomplishments.
KaBoom! (the book) is really three books in one. It’s Darell’s story, and the organization’s — an important story, told with charm and unflagging honesty. It’s an essay on the importance of play and the implications for public policy. And it’s a how-to manual for communities to build playgrounds themselves.
If you’re a social entrepreneur or just want to learn more about social entrepreneurship, you owe it to yourself to read at least the first half of this book.
Oh, and by the way: that goal of the One World Futbol Project to distribute one million balls in our first three years? With a generous boost from Chevrolet, we’re on track to meet it!
A little more than two years ago I found myself immersed up to my eyeballs in a new venture dedicated to fostering the spirit of play among disadvantaged children. That venture — a mission-driven, for-profit company — was the One World Futbol Project, just then founded by the husband and wife team of Tim Jahnigen and Lisa Tarver. Tim had invented an extraordinary new soccer ball that never goes flat, needs no pump or needle, and goes on playing even if it’s punctured. The Project opened for business shortly afterward during the 2010 World Cup in Johannesburg. Our goal was to distribute one million One World Futbols within three years to children and young people in refugee camps, war zones, impoverished villages, and low-income urban neighborhoods around the world.
What had drawn me to the One World Futbol Project when Tim and Lisa showed me a prototype ball late in 2009 was not the opportunity to give poor kids what would probably be their first ball to play with. For me, the Project wasn’t about play, or sports. I was drawn in by the way so many UN agencies, schools, and NGOs were using soccer as a teaching tool, offering games that helped children acquire insights and skills in conflict resolution, self-confidence, teamwork, gender equity, and HIV/AIDs awareness.
In other words, as I saw it, the One World Futbol could speed community development efforts where poor people lived. That, to me, was a no-brainer, since I’ve been concerned throughout my life with the challenges of global poverty. (Now I’m even writing a book on that topic.) As the business began organizing in the spring of 2010, I became one of four partners. Both Tim and Lisa have continued ever since to emphasize the importance of play in child development, and I even attended a presentation by Dr. Stuart Brown, one of the world’s leading authorities on play. Still, I didn’t get it.
Then I read Darell Hammond’s surprisingly powerful little book, KaBoom! I think I get it now: if kids are deprived of opportunities to play — not twiddling thumbs on video games but creating their own games and rough-housing out-of-doors — the ill effects are evident and provable in their later lives.
Less than 20 years ago, Darell co-founded KaBoom!, a nonprofit organization that builds playgrounds in disadvantaged neighborhoods in North American towns and cities. Darell himself grew up in difficult circumstances (though he didn’t see it that way), and he never finished college, but he proved himself to be a brilliant leader — enough so that he’s now Dr. Hammond, having received an honorary Doctorate from the college he briefly attended.
Since the mid-1990s, KaBoom! has built more than 2,000 playgrounds throughout North America, and it’s estimated that its training, advisory services, and online tools have enabled others to build 10 times that many over the same period. KaBoom! has become a model of social entrepreneurship and a superb example of how nonprofit leaders can equal the very best managers to be found in the private sector. These are all truly remarkable accomplishments.
KaBoom! (the book) is really three books in one. It’s Darell’s story, and the organization’s — an important story, told with charm and unflagging honesty. It’s an essay on the importance of play and the implications for public policy. And it’s a how-to manual for communities to build playgrounds themselves.
If you’re a social entrepreneur or just want to learn more about social entrepreneurship, you owe it to yourself to read at least the first half of this book.
Oh, and by the way: that goal of the One World Futbol Project to distribute one million balls in our first three years? With a generous boost from Chevrolet, we’re on track to meet it!
February 13, 2013
"We are losing the central gathering spaces in our neighborhoods... Children play in insular groups in backyards surrounded by privacy fences. We literally create physical barriers that prevent kids from coming together to play spontaneously... All those hours of free play time that most adults today enjoyed when they were were kids are long gone, replaced by soccer practice and music lessons. Participation in things like soccer and flag football and Little League has doubled in the past few decades....
Children end up with an unhealthy reliance on adults, who direct every action of their lives, including resolving the sort of playground issues kids used to handle on their own.'' -- Darell Hamond, "How One Man Built a Movement to Save Play.''
My 22-year-old daughter Jenny and I were sharing lunch when she observed: "These kids today actually have iPads. When I was a kid, the best thing we had was a Nintendo Gameboy.''
I smiled and said: "Honey, when I was a kid, we played with spoons. My grandma gave me a spoon and told me to go play in the dirt on the side of her house.''
My daughter thought I was joking. But I explained how Grandma said I could use that spoon to dig my way to China, how I dug with a spoon and had a fantastic time using my imagination. Just playing.
Fast forward several months to a meeting with our friends at the Grand Rapids Children's Museum, who are leading a regional effort to champion the value of play. Numerous studies show free play boosts creativity, imagination, social skills, productivity and a host of other valuable gifts.
Unfortunately, the number of hours of free play has dropped drastically in recent years: more kids play video games instead of going outside and more hours of organized team sports and adult supervised "play dates'' have also sent free play hours down as childhood obesity has risen.
When I was in grad school at the University of Michigan, Professor Larry Rowley showed us an incredible Atlantic article asking "Is Google Making us stupid?" The ability to find everything we want to know by simple search, it noted was robbing us of a lot of learning skills. A huge tool that counters the downside of the Internt and feeds learning: free play. Yet recess periods are being cut at many schools.
Darell Hammond, the founder of Kaboom, the national nonprofit that builds playgrounds nationwide, asks "If we don't let our kids play, who will be the next Steve Jobs?"
Hammond's book, "Kaboom: How One Man Built a Movement to Save Play'' outlines the issue and its consequences very well.
Hammond is part of the movement for boosting free play and will keynote the Grand Rapids' Children's Museum's Symposium on Play March 1. Businesses, education leaders and other community leaders are becoming part of the effort to boost interest in free play.
The museum is also spurring play among adults with its Corporate Recess program to teach teams the value of free play toward spurring innovation, creativity and team building in the work place.
How Change Conversations move the needle: the Grand Rapids Children's Museum's fantastic idea (becoming the state's leading champion of play) reminded me of my earlier "spoon discussion." The two ideas melded into something new with a pro-play campaign that now asks questions like "What can you do with a spoon?"
The takeaway: if you can come up with imaginative things to do with a simple every day item like a spoon, just think what other innovative ideas you or your workers could develop, invent or create.
Or as your mom or grandma might have said: "OK, OK. Now just go outside and play.''
Children end up with an unhealthy reliance on adults, who direct every action of their lives, including resolving the sort of playground issues kids used to handle on their own.'' -- Darell Hamond, "How One Man Built a Movement to Save Play.''
My 22-year-old daughter Jenny and I were sharing lunch when she observed: "These kids today actually have iPads. When I was a kid, the best thing we had was a Nintendo Gameboy.''
I smiled and said: "Honey, when I was a kid, we played with spoons. My grandma gave me a spoon and told me to go play in the dirt on the side of her house.''
My daughter thought I was joking. But I explained how Grandma said I could use that spoon to dig my way to China, how I dug with a spoon and had a fantastic time using my imagination. Just playing.
Fast forward several months to a meeting with our friends at the Grand Rapids Children's Museum, who are leading a regional effort to champion the value of play. Numerous studies show free play boosts creativity, imagination, social skills, productivity and a host of other valuable gifts.
Unfortunately, the number of hours of free play has dropped drastically in recent years: more kids play video games instead of going outside and more hours of organized team sports and adult supervised "play dates'' have also sent free play hours down as childhood obesity has risen.
When I was in grad school at the University of Michigan, Professor Larry Rowley showed us an incredible Atlantic article asking "Is Google Making us stupid?" The ability to find everything we want to know by simple search, it noted was robbing us of a lot of learning skills. A huge tool that counters the downside of the Internt and feeds learning: free play. Yet recess periods are being cut at many schools.
Darell Hammond, the founder of Kaboom, the national nonprofit that builds playgrounds nationwide, asks "If we don't let our kids play, who will be the next Steve Jobs?"
Hammond's book, "Kaboom: How One Man Built a Movement to Save Play'' outlines the issue and its consequences very well.
Hammond is part of the movement for boosting free play and will keynote the Grand Rapids' Children's Museum's Symposium on Play March 1. Businesses, education leaders and other community leaders are becoming part of the effort to boost interest in free play.
The museum is also spurring play among adults with its Corporate Recess program to teach teams the value of free play toward spurring innovation, creativity and team building in the work place.
How Change Conversations move the needle: the Grand Rapids Children's Museum's fantastic idea (becoming the state's leading champion of play) reminded me of my earlier "spoon discussion." The two ideas melded into something new with a pro-play campaign that now asks questions like "What can you do with a spoon?"
The takeaway: if you can come up with imaginative things to do with a simple every day item like a spoon, just think what other innovative ideas you or your workers could develop, invent or create.
Or as your mom or grandma might have said: "OK, OK. Now just go outside and play.''
September 4, 2011
I read this book because I was a volunteer at a Kaboom! playground build in Champaign, IL. I found that experience to be very fun and rewarding, to see the playground go up in the span of just a few hours, so I was intrigued by the book. Overall, I thought it was good...although I do have a few critiques.
First, the good. I think that the information and business model/mission of Kaboom! are really great, and so for that I found the book quite fascinating. It was cool to read about not only the successes, but also the challenges that the author and creator of kaboom faced, showing the realness of starting a nonprofit. More than anything, I love his determination that what Kaboom! does is to focus on helping the community realize their own strength and resources, so that they can continue to transform the worlds they live in. It is so heartwarming to know that there are dedicated people like that out there, and to see his positivity and determination shine through all. Also, Hammond was deeply inspired by his time with City Year, and so considering that I am now serving with the same organization I was intrigued by that aspect.
Now, for the critique. Number one, Hammond isn't the best writer in the world, and so after getting about halfway through, sometimes I felt like I was being fed the same stuff, over and over...so it was a bit dry and difficult towards the end, but not terrible; after all, I still finished the book and give it 4/5 stars. If you are interested in the organization and content, great. If you are looking to be struck speechless by elegant prose...look elsewhere.
Secondly--and this is more of a personal critique against an attitude rather than any sort of attack on the book itself--I found myself not quite in line with what he was saying sometimes. For example, he claims that Kaboom! works to build playgrounds in more "impoverished" communities where there is a lack of playspaces. Thinking about the build I was a part of in Champaign... yes, Champaign has low-income areas and has many of the same problems as even larger urban areas, but that phrase "impoverished" carries a sense of sympathy rather than empathy. I'm not going to go into a whole tirade about this, because people who may read this probably just want a review, but anyways, I think that he could have framed certain things in a better light--although I do admire his desire to help communities realize their own potential instead of just coming in, giving a playground, and leaving. So I think his greater message trumps my argument in the end, but still. And...just as a note, he claims that they like to build playgrounds in places where there aren't safe playspaces...well this one we built was right across from a school, which already had a (seemingly public) playground. Hmm.
Overall, though, if you are looking to be inspired by the power of an individual, and to renew your faith in humanity, read this book.
First, the good. I think that the information and business model/mission of Kaboom! are really great, and so for that I found the book quite fascinating. It was cool to read about not only the successes, but also the challenges that the author and creator of kaboom faced, showing the realness of starting a nonprofit. More than anything, I love his determination that what Kaboom! does is to focus on helping the community realize their own strength and resources, so that they can continue to transform the worlds they live in. It is so heartwarming to know that there are dedicated people like that out there, and to see his positivity and determination shine through all. Also, Hammond was deeply inspired by his time with City Year, and so considering that I am now serving with the same organization I was intrigued by that aspect.
Now, for the critique. Number one, Hammond isn't the best writer in the world, and so after getting about halfway through, sometimes I felt like I was being fed the same stuff, over and over...so it was a bit dry and difficult towards the end, but not terrible; after all, I still finished the book and give it 4/5 stars. If you are interested in the organization and content, great. If you are looking to be struck speechless by elegant prose...look elsewhere.
Secondly--and this is more of a personal critique against an attitude rather than any sort of attack on the book itself--I found myself not quite in line with what he was saying sometimes. For example, he claims that Kaboom! works to build playgrounds in more "impoverished" communities where there is a lack of playspaces. Thinking about the build I was a part of in Champaign... yes, Champaign has low-income areas and has many of the same problems as even larger urban areas, but that phrase "impoverished" carries a sense of sympathy rather than empathy. I'm not going to go into a whole tirade about this, because people who may read this probably just want a review, but anyways, I think that he could have framed certain things in a better light--although I do admire his desire to help communities realize their own potential instead of just coming in, giving a playground, and leaving. So I think his greater message trumps my argument in the end, but still. And...just as a note, he claims that they like to build playgrounds in places where there aren't safe playspaces...well this one we built was right across from a school, which already had a (seemingly public) playground. Hmm.
Overall, though, if you are looking to be inspired by the power of an individual, and to renew your faith in humanity, read this book.
May 12, 2011
About the time Darell was starting Kaboom, I was teaching in Baltimore City. At that time, recess was formally discouraged as "instructional time" was most critical for children 2-3 years behind grade level. Additionally, the school I taught at had no playground equipment - a grassy area, but zero equipment. I thought this was an atrocity - for me, childhood = play.
Needless to say, this book spoke to me on so many levels - first and foremost for the need for safe, creative play spaces accessible to all children. Every child deserves that. Yet, I also walked away from this book believing that the very well-being of our country is dependent on providing time and space for play. The ability for individuals to innovate and to be entrepreneurial is founded in this sacred time and space for children to create, to brainstorm, to socialize, and to work together.
Needless to say, this book spoke to me on so many levels - first and foremost for the need for safe, creative play spaces accessible to all children. Every child deserves that. Yet, I also walked away from this book believing that the very well-being of our country is dependent on providing time and space for play. The ability for individuals to innovate and to be entrepreneurial is founded in this sacred time and space for children to create, to brainstorm, to socialize, and to work together.
May 5, 2011
An inspiring true story, this book covers Darell Hammond's journey thus far, from a rough start in life to his current efforts to save play in America. Through years of hard work and dedication, Darell and his organization have made a huge impact on 2,000 communities across the country. Darell's story proves that one person can make a difference, and that a group of caring and dedicated people (both at KaBOOM! and the communities they partner with) can truly make this world a better place. A very enjoyable read and an uplifting story, I highly recommend this book to readers of all ages.
July 4, 2011
KaBOOM is a great organization, and the philosophy behind it is common-sense and liberating. While Hammond comes off a little pushy on occasion, you can't fault him for doing a lot of good, and for laying out a mindset that encourages children not just to be children, but fully functional human beings.
January 28, 2012
Really interesting book overall, don't regret reading it. Anyone interested in advocating a cause really should dig into this just to see how the organization ended up scaling up and survived the earlier years. They really ended up running it more like a business to ensure that it was going to survive, which some people have ideological issues with.
May 12, 2013
A good organizational history with some good advice for communities trying to create more spaces for unstructured play. Brings in the work of many other groups and individuals, although at times it starts to feel like name-dropping. It didn't pull in as much research as I would have hoped but does refer to a few other resources for the academic side of this work.
May 16, 2011
Great exploration of community based approaches to solving important societal issues. Darell Hammond is inspirational and KABOOM! Has set an example for how innovative ideas can scale and create meaningful change.
August 9, 2011
I was very interested as my daughter works for Kaboom. It's an interesting story if not a literary masterpiece. Honestly, for most people a magazine article would probably be enough.
June 27, 2012
Loved the anecdotes and stories! I was lucky enough to meet Darrell this week and was really impressed by his book.
December 8, 2014
Amazing book about building communities.
January 30, 2015
I think the organization is great. I think the book is hard to read because it jumps around from place to place.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews