Preds Foundation, KaBOOM! Partner for Eleventh Annual Playground Build

With the Nashville Predators away on a five-game road trip, more than 100 volunteers from the Preds front office, Foundation and partner organizations rolled up their sleeves and got to work at the 11th annual KaBOOM! playground build.
"This is one of our projects that our staff looks forward to every year, and they always ask when it's happening so they can pencil it onto their calendars," Predators Vice President of Community Relations Rebecca King said. "It's a collaborative build that's going to leave a legacy long after all of us are still working where we are."

KaBOOM! - a national non-profit working to end playspace inequity by uniting with communities to build kid-designed playspaces - partnered with the Preds Foundation once again to deliver another brand new playground to an impactful local organization.
This year's recipient was Dream Streets - a local nonprofit that's been working for nearly a decade to protect and empower under-resourced families in West and North Nashville.
For Dream Streets Director TJ Fletcher, the playground - as well as the opportunity it provides to the surrounding neighborhood's families - is an invaluable addition.
"It's incredibly important," Fletcher said. "There are very few places in this neighborhood for kids and families to be and there's not a lot of places for them that are safe. And so having access to this and this building and all the resources that it provides is huge."
For five hours, employees from every department of the Predators organization, from marketing to hockey operations, worked together assembling playground equipment, mixing cement, building picnic benches and more.

When a short burst of cold November rain reared its ugly head over the construction site, the group's resolve to finish the job only seemed to grow stronger.
"I think it shows our 'One Goal' mentality and how we all work together to achieve a goal and to achieve building a playground," Predators Community Relations Coordinator Abby Helper said. "And I think it just shows our organization's commitment to the community and to giving back and making sure that kids always have a safe place to play."
The Predators staff weren't the only ones putting in a hard day's work.
Additional volunteers from partner organizations ESPN 102.5 The Game, 102.9 The Buzz, Hunt Brothers Pizza, NES, Jackson and Piedmont Natural Gas helped get the project across the finish line an hour before schedule.
As the last pieces of play equipment were raised and the final spaces of dirt filled in with mulch, Wednesday's volunteer group was able to step back and admire what they'd accomplished.

Where a cordoned-off patch of dirt and construction materials stood just five hours earlier was now a beautiful Gold and Navy playground that will soon officially open for another deserving Nashville neighborhood.
"Nashville shows that people support the city," Fletcher said. "When you go downtown and you see thousands of Gold shirts or blue shirts or whichever team we're supporting that night - Nashville knows how to show up for its people and for its teams and it's just another reflection of what a great city this is."