WE WON!!! ATLANTA WINS!!! I am so thrilled that Atlanta has won a Playful City USA designation from KaBOOM! The announcement is embargoed until October 30th when they will release the news nationally. The Parks Department is working on having a press conference with our awesome Mayor, too. (Did you see her, Mayor Shirley Franklin, on the cover of last week's Newsweek magazine?)

What a terrific process this is. I think altogether that 31 cities out of all the ones who applied won the designation. The next phase is to go for one of the three $25,000 grants. Now - KaBOOM! being KaBOOM! - the application will be a 3-minute video on why Atlanta is a great place to play. That is going to be a blast to produce. Going to reach out to Andre 3000 of OutKast (he's from here - I've seen him in my park down the street. He used to go to the school around the corner from here) to see if he'll do a rewording of "Heya". How cool would that be?!?

Congratulations!!

Thanks, Stephanie. I'm very excited about this initiative. I just got a call from the folks who will be handling the PR on this for KaBOOM! and got to talk about the report card program on our community officials (idea borrowed from our friends at Genocide Intervention Network) and the Playground of the Month award.

So much to do!

Well done Cynthia and Atlanta!!!!!

Congratulations Cynthia and Atlanta!

:D

What truly smile-inducing news - congratulations!!!!

Thanks, y'all. I'm pretty excited although the amount of work ahead is daunting. The next task is putting together the video application for the $25,000 grant. The grant needs to FULLY fund a project that will move play forward in our city, so deciding on a project will have to come first.

I haven't made a movie since college. Thank goodness that process is a lot easier than it used to be (although it was pretty uncomplicated splicing and taping Super 8 film strips!) What's a good software for editing movies? Sadly, I'm PC-based and don't have a Mac, although my step-daughter does.

Will have to start thinking of ideas for the video. Here are the guidelines from KaBOOM!

Part I: The Project Summary

When proposing a project to be funded in this grant process, please consider the following criteria and weights which the Grant Review Committee will use to rate your Project Summary:

1. Innovative practice (25%). We’re looking for creativity and/or innovation in proposed projects.
2. Need and Impact (25%). Explain how your project will move forward your agenda for play.
3. Community Engagement (25%) Demonstrate how this project represents a public/private partnership.
4. Feasibility based on an award of $25,000 (15%). How realistic is the budget for your project?
5. Effective means for sharing the project and its successes and challenges with your sister cities across the country. (10%). As a role model in play, how will you communicate your project with other Playful City USA communities?

Part II: The Video Entry

1. The video will be reviewed and judged in three areas:

1. How well does it answer the question, “What makes you a Playful City USA?” You’ve given us the data in your application submission, now we want to see your playfulness at every level in your community. And remember, we’re talking free, unstructured play. (40%)
2. Demonstration of community-wide understanding and support for an agenda on free, unstructured play. We’d like to see and hear from a wide range of people who are the stakeholders in your Playful City USA: kids, government representatives, community leaders, moms and dads, business owners, pets, you name it…anyone who stands to benefit from your achievements in play can participate (35%)
3. Creativity. Use your imagination, think out of the box, but most importantly have fun. The extent to which your entry is wonderfully creative counts! (25%)

2. The video may be NO longer than 3 minutes
3. In the title slide (the opening of the video) you must include the name of your city and the project you would like to have funded.

4. The video may feature the following but is not limited to:

1. Kids
2. Community Members
3. City Officials
4. Playspaces
5. Community Sights
6. Play-filled Moments (Once again, we are talking about unstructured play.)

All I know at this point is that I want to have every principal from every elementary school in Atlanta appear in front of their playgrounds. Then for the 18 or so schools without playgrounds I want the principal to stand where a playground SHOULD be and do something.

Hmmmm....... Any thoughts? I want it to be moving, uplifting, inspiring, laughter-inducing, thought-provoking and motivating. That's not asking much of three minutes.

The City of Atlanta is going to hold a press conference next Tuesday to announce the Playful City USA designation. There is a good chance that our Mayor will make the announcement. "Worst" case scenario is that the Commissioner of Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs will make it. And then, I have to speak. Yikes! Better get my talking points all ready to go.

I'm so excited to think about the focus this will bring to creating new play experiences for our children.

Wild and wonderful times in Atlanta. The buzz is building about the Playful City USA designation. Now

The video grant application is due in just over 2 weeks. I'm getting calls and emails from City Councilmen, playground organizers, city officials... it's going to be terrific. Although I would be more certain if I actually had an idea for the video!

What do I know so far?

• 3 minutes long
• lots of people from all walks of life
• doing what? Yelling "Atlanta is full of play!"?; or simply "Atlanta" , or.....
• what can be the unifying thing that brings all of these people together in one joyous, playful moment?
• have a pro to film it for me
• have a film production company here to help me edit, etc.
• WHAT DO WE DO??? WHAT WOULD BE FUNNY???

HELP!!! Any creative souls out there?

Playful. Hmmmm. How about a group of people having fun and building what would be revealed at the end as a complete Peace Tiles mural. Quick cuts, paint, cutting, glue, color, laughing, music, goofing around....final shot of the mural and zoom back to reveal all the participants that yell: Play in Atlanta....(or whatever).

Sorry to be so absent, have been CRAZY busy filming the video. Things have been extraordinary... one of the top production houses in Atlanta volunteered to do the video so I've been out filming all around Atlanta with an incredible team. Have gotten some great stuff... including amazing kids, the Mayor, a lot of city staffers who work so hard to make our parks and playgrounds terrific... even got former basketball great Dominique Wilkins to do a cameo and CNN anchor Fredricka Whitfield, and more footage of Atlanta's baby panda playing than anyone could hope for, and our beluga whale dancing...and so much more.

Today I got an email from R.E.M.'s manager offering support for the Atlanta Task Force on Play AND giving us permission to use "Shiny Happy People" in the video!! Everyone is being so generous. It's a true delight...and gives me so much to be thankful for. I look forward to a day in the near future when every child in Atlanta has a first rate playground nearby.

Hope all of y'all have a wonderful Thanksgiving, too.

:-)

Thanks, Gayle. It really has been a WOW experience for me. It's Thanksgiving weekend here in the States and I am so overwhelmed with gratitude for the life I get to lead.

Thanks, Mark, for the idea above. Didn't have time to arrange it for the video, BUT what I'm going to do is even better: Part of the Playful City initiative is to hold a city-wide annual Play Day. So, PEACE TILES will be a part of that. It will probably be in September in conjunction with some national play day thing that's happening. How cool would it be to have activities in all of Atlanta's parks that day? And in each park kids could make Peace Tiles. Then, we collect all of the tiles from all over the city and install them on an enormous wall in City Hall...or... we do that with half of them and send the other half to another city around the world. I'll have to find out if we have a "sister" city or something like that. Guess I better start collecting things now for the kids to use.

Hey, Lars, what do you think. Wanna come to Atlanta next Fall for a Peace Tiles on Play Day event? Let's do it!

Pulling back to the present, there is SO much to do in the next week:

• animation for the video
• write a Seussian poem to run through the video
• plan a media campaign to launch next Friday when the video launches
• write an op-ed piece on the importance of play for the Atlanta newspaper
• edit the video

Where to begin, where to begin.

Think I'll go get another chocolate chip cookie first.

I firmly believe you can never go wrong with chocolate.

I am inspired by and full of admiration for your dedication, organization and creativity. Atlanta is lucky to have you...

Thanks, Stephanie. You're right about one thing: chocolate!

Check out the Shiny Happy People video. I'd forgotten what a fun song it was, absolutely perfect for this video that has to reach a large cross section of people:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y bGSDkvh8B0

very cool cynthia - i'm there - you can pencil me in :) 2008 is already shaping up to be a great year for peace tiles - honestly, its never where you are trying to take things that seems to matter; its where things take you! so if atlanta's in cards, atlanta's in the cards. i might have to bring some folks in from CDC to 'observe' the process so they understand how it links to health communication.

sounds like you are on a great path cynthia, and that this video will be a very good thing for you!

weird association - have you seen any of the sony bravia advertisements? at their base, they are all about play - and they use great music too - check 'em out here:

http://www.youtube.com/results?s earch_query=sony+bravia&sear ch=Search

(the paint fireworks are the best :) I was thinking their use of color, lovely little 'pillow shot' type things, slow motion, all choicefully edited in, in addition to the use of colors make compelling viewing. as i am sure your videos of play will do!

cheers, and thanks so much for the invite! i'll keep watching this evolve.

WOW! Those ads are extraordinary. That one with the bouncey balls is heaven...the song, the lightness, the gentleness. Boy, if we only had more than 20 days to do this thing. I'm heading to the post-production house tomorrow so we can edit the thing...in ONE DAY!! I do have a bouncey purple and orange ball that appears and reappears in the video, but I was going to shoot some more footage of it and the ball disappeared.

I'm suddenly really nervous about this. Will know so much more after I've had a chance to review the footage tomorrow. The next 40 hours are going to be INTENSE! Wish me luck.

Oh, and ... so very true about going where life leads you. As an artist and a Pisces I've always been a very "go with the flow" kind of chick. It really is the only thing that works for me. If I try to strategize or manipulate things fall apart. If I let myself follow my heart it all works. It sounds trite, but it really is the truth for me!

i will keep my fingers crossed for you! as a libra, i've always swung from trying to be strategic on one hand, to being open and 'go with the flow' on the other. trying to maintain a better balance now :)

WOW!!! WOW!!! WOW!!!

I just got back from working on the video. Y'all aren't going to believe it. I can't wait for you to see it. The song is perfect, the footage is beautiful, Atlanta in fullest fall foliage is gorgeous. I'm about to bust a gasket. Can't wait for y'all to see it. It will be posted on the KaBOOM website on Friday. I'll let you know when and where so you can go vote for it. :-)

Here's a sneak peak at the video. BUT:

1. Please come back and look at it again between Friday, Nov. 30th and Dec. 21st...and hopefully vote for it then too.
2. This temporary link has been weirding out on me from time to time so keep trying, or wait until Friday when I;ll post the real link.
3. We compressed the movie too much and are resubmitting a less compressed file that will hopefully reveal all the beautiful colors that show up when I view this on my TV.

Here you go:

http://kaboom.shycast.com/contes tant/27

Hope you like it! I feel like I'm sending my child out into the world for the first time... a nervous wreck!!

Cynthia .... stop with the nervous wreck stuff!!!

Thanks, Gayle. You made me smile...but I'm still nervous, but excited as well. Now, I've just got to figure out by Friday how to get 100,000 people to vote for it! Guerilla ad campaign ideas, anyone?

A link on the R.E.M. website????? JP's address book???

Be Bold BABY ... think BIG :)

That was very well done, very fun...well shot, well cut...kudos.

100,000 votes. Yikes. REM site is a great idea. Atlanta Journal-Constitution web site perhaps.

Great ideas! I'll call R.E.M. tomorrow...and JP, too. I'm talking to the AJC News for Kids person tomorrow, and sending out an official press release as well. AND working on an op-ed piece on the importance of play for the AJC, too. Hmmm...and I thought I was going to take tonight off!

Did I tell you the project that this is going to fund?...a campaign to have a playspace near every child in Atlanta by 2010. Crazy idea, but those are the only kind I like.