Let's Play, a community partnership program created by Dr. Pepper Snapple Group (DPS), has the goal of getting kids and families active outside and to “provide the tools, places and inspiration to help communities increase physical activity.”1 As part of DPS's corporate philanthropic program, ACTION Nation, Let's Play supports Michelle Obama's Let's Move! initiative, believing that obesity can be solved when everyone cooperates and takes responsibility for getting kids active outside.
The first Let's Play partnership is a $15 million, three year commitment with KaBOOM!, a national nonprofit organization that is dedicated to creating a place to play within walking distance of every child. Together they believe that “play helps make children happier, fitter, smarter, more socially adept and creative.”2
Beginning in 2011, Let's Play began to offer grants to update existing playgrounds, keep playgrounds open longer, and to build new playgrounds. Their goal is to create or fix up 2000 playgrounds that will benefit approximately five million children nationwide.3
Application for a specific Let's Play grant begins with completing the KaBOOM! Project Planner. Then the Top 10 applications for that specific grant are posted on the Let's Play website for voting. The application with the most percentage of total votes wins that grant. A KaBOOM! representative notifies the winner and assists with the further playground preparations. It typically it takes two months to prepare and then about two hundred volunteers to build the play space in one day.4
Included in this initiative, Dr. Pepper Snapple Group and their employee volunteers have the goal of building 40 new playgrounds in 40 different communities by the end of 2013.5
Additionally, a Let's Play website was created to coordinate the playground projects, to encourage innovative ideas for fostering physical activity, and to promote the importance of play.6
