Waxahachie, Texas – October 06, 2026 -- More than 200 volunteers from Foresters Financial, PHP Agency and KABOOM! completed the 180th playground built under their 20-year partnership in a single day at the Waxahachie Family YMCA, as a new industry report finds children spend up to 7.5 hours daily on screens outside school.
KABOOM!'s 2026 report links shrinking outdoor access to youth mental health strain
The build coincided with the release of KABOOM!'s 2026 State of Our Kids Report: Addressing the Youth Mental Health Crisis, which found unstructured play and physical activity declining as screen use rises, with quality outdoor spaces unevenly distributed across communities. 'The State of Our Kids Report shows why places like this still matter,' said Lysa Ratliff, CEO of KABOOM!.
Local children designed the playground through a Design Day session months earlier
KABOOM! collected hand-drawn concepts from children, including a 12-year-old's sketch featuring slides, climbing bars and a spinner, and incorporated them into the final build. The completed structure includes ramps, ground-level play features and an accessible glider for children of varying abilities.
Foresters Financial marks a 20-year, 180-playground milestone with KABOOM!
'Reaching 180 playgrounds is something we are enormously proud of, but every build brings us back to why we started doing this in the first place,' said Matt Berman, President and CEO of Foresters Financial. Curt Hazelbaker, President and CEO of the YMCA of Metropolitan Dallas, said the project lets children point to features and say the idea was theirs.
Maral Keshishian, President of PHP Agency, said the partnership aimed to create a space where families connect and communities gather, framing the effort as building something lasting rather than a single structure. The project lands during KABOOM!'s 30th anniversary year, as the organization reports having transformed more than 17,000 playspaces for over 12 million children nationwide since 1996.