The Park & Rec Trades magazine, established in 1994, is an independent monthly super-tabloid publication targeted specifically to national, state, county, and city municipal park administrators and staff as well as national military facility grounds administrators and staff. Other subscribers include administrators and staff members of campgrounds, RV parks, forest preserves, engineering firms, fish/wildlife agencies, and suppliers to the park and recreation industry.

Tim Wilson, publisher of Park & Rec Trades, launched the magazine to provide suppliers to the park and rec community an opportunity to advertise nationwide to the industry in a cost-effective manner and to offer valuable contnt to park and rec professionals.

George S. Parker, believing that strategy and amusement games could be enjoyed by adults as well as children, developed the classic games Monopoly, Flinch, Pit, Rook, Boggle, Risk, and Sorry.1 His own passion for inventing games was expanded upon by strategic acquisitions of other inventors’ products and his 12 tenets for running a good business - his own rules for the “game” of a successful corporation.2

• 1. Whitehill, Bruce. “George S. Parker and Parker Brothers.” The Big Game Hunter. < http://thebiggamehunter.com/company-histories/parker-geo-bros/ > 9 Sep. 2011.
• 2. Turner, Glenn. “The Game Makers: The Story of Parker Brothers from Tiddledy Winks to Trivial Pursuit (Literature).” The New GAMER. 27 April 2005.

Parks & Rec Business Magazine (PRB) is a recreation industry resource for parks and recreation directors, staff, and managers. Published by Northstar Publishing, PRB includes information concerning play spaces, parks, fitness, sports, and aquatics as well as administration, leadership, programming, grounds, and maintenance.1

• 1. “Parks and Rec Business.” Northstar Publishing, Incorporated. < http://www.northstarpubs.com/contact > 4 April 2012.

Parks Build Community is a national initiative that promotes the value of parks and recreation on the health and vitality of communities across America. National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA) launched the Parks Build Community initiative in 2009 with plans to revitalize Washington D.C.'s Marvin Gaye Park. Their mission is to select a park in an underserved area and transform it into a thriving gathering place for youth and adults.1

• 1. “Parks Build Community.” NRPA. < http://www.nrpa.org/parksbuildcommunity/ > 14 June 2011.

Partnership for Play Every Day is a voluntary and collaborative initiative to increase the spaces and quality of play for children and youth in America. Affiliated with more than 30 of the nation’s leading non-profits, government agencies, universities, and corporations, the Partnership for Play Every Day hopes to create and sustain momentum for a national movement to have kids get 60 minutes of physical activity every day.1

• 1. “The Partnership for Play Every Day.” Partnership for Play Every Day. < http://www.playeverday.org/about/more-infor.html > 1 Feb. 2011.

Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is a non-profit public broadcasting television service, which was founded in 1970. The programming aired on PBS is produced and created by organizations and individuals and not by PBS. In the fall of 2000, The Institute for Play (IFP) created The Promise of Play, three one-hour documentaries to be aired on PBS as a miniseries. The IFP worked with InCA Productions of San Francisco, California. The executive producers were Dr. Stuart Brown and David Kennard. Helping with the production were Professor Brian Sutton-Smith, noted play researcher and theorist; renowned primatologist Jane Goodall; early childhood expert Alice Meckley; and the world-renowned Dr. Patch Adams.

The Promise of Play is broken into three episodes:

PE4life is a nonprofit agency that helps schools build fit kids by advocating for and assisting in the development and enhancement of physical education programs and physical activity opportunities in schools and communities. They understand the importance of physical activity to children and youth, and are passionate in their work to help increase PE’s visibility, importance, and place in America’s schools. Their vision is that all children embrace wellness for life.

Tom Peeples, a consultant on playground design and safety issues, has assisted in developing and promoting playground safety standards through his involvement with ASTM International (ASTM), the National Playground Contractors Association International (NPCAI), and the National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA).

His experience with parks and playgrounds began in 1979 when he started working for the City of Boulder Parks and Recreation/Water Department. With duties concerning maintenance of city parks and playgrounds, water lines, and sewer lines, Tom gained valuable experience in all aspects of park and playground construction, installation, inspection, and maintenance.1

• 1. Private correspondence from Tom Peeples to Playground Professionals. 12 Sep. 2011.

Penn State Playground Safety Conference 1995

The 1995 International Playground Safety Conference, held at Penn State University, was the first worldwide conference on this subject. The Conference Convener and Chair was Penn State University Professor Monty Christiansen, an international advocate for children’s play. The conference was a continuing and distance educational program of Penn State University College of Health and Human Development, in cooperation with the National Playground Safety Institute (NPSI) and the National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA).

Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi was a social and educational reformer and writer in Europe during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He believed that society could best be changed by education and that the reform began with assisting the individual students to help themselves.1 Besides teaching children with his unique methods, Pestalozzi also taught education leaders of his day, including Friedrich Froebel, the founder of the kindergarten movement.

• 1. Frost, Joe L. A History of Children's Play and Play Environments. New York, NY: Routledge. 2010. p. 24.

Jean Piaget was a noted theorist in the field of developmental psychology and in the study of human intelligence. He was born in Neuchatel, Switzerland, on August 9, 1896 and died September 16, 1980 in Geneva, Switzerland.1

• 1. “A Brief Biography of Jean Piaget.” Jean Piaget Society. <http://www.piaget.org/aboutPiaget.html> 3 March 2011.

Lady Allen of Hurtwood, noting that concerning play there was “a wealth of experience, but little informed, published material,” wrote Planning for Play in 1968 to assist those architects, planners, and leaders “determined to break away from the sterile barrack-type of playground of asphalt and mechanical equipment.” Through a discussion of incidental play, group play, adventure playgrounds, play parks, neighborhood playgrounds, and hospital play needs, Lady Allen sought to “explore ways in which, through play, the inherent curiosity and natural gaiety of children can be stimulated and kept alive.” She also explored the play needs of “handicapped, subnormal and maladjusted children.”1

• 1. Allen, Lady of Hurtwood. Planning for Play.

Play and Child Development is designed primarily as a textbook for upper division students to guide understanding of how play ties directly to child development. Research on play topics, historical views and theory, and current play trends and play therapy are blended together to give practical applications and learning approaches across various ages and developmental levels of children. The text is intended to help prepare those who support children’s play in a number of contexts including preschools, elementary schools, park systems, and research programs.

The PLAY Every Day Act was a bill proposed to help promote the national recommendation of physical activity to kids, families, and communities across the United States. It was introduced in the Senate on February 15, 2007, by Sen. Thomas Harkin on behalf of himself and Sen. Hillary Clinton.1

The purpose of this Act was to help children, families, and communities achieve 60 minutes of physical activity every day, which is the national recommendation.

Congress made the following findings:

• 1. PLAY Every Day Act, 110th Congress, 1st Session S.651. 15 Feb. 2007.

The original Play It Safe, An Anthology of Playground Safety was edited by Monty Christiansen in 1992. Hans Vogelsong joined Monty in editing the 2nd edition, which was published in 1996 by The National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA). NRPA's National Playground Safety Institute (NPSI) sponsored this “extensive compilation of monographs written by national play and playground safety authorities.”1

• 1. Christiansen, Monty L. and Hans Vogelsong. “Acknowledgments of Appreciation by Ken Kutska.” Play It Safe: An Anthology of Playground Safety. 2nd ed. Arlington, VA: The National Recreation & Park Association, 1996. p. iv.

Play Today in the Primary School Playground is a compilation of papers presented at the 1988 “The State of Play: Perspectives on Children's Oral Culture” international conference held at the University of Sheffield and sponsored by the National Centre for English Cultural Tradition. The organizers of the conference and the editors of the resulting book, Julia C. Bishop and Mavis Curtis, maintain that the common belief of the decline of children's play needs to be reexamined in light of children's self directed traditional play.

Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul was written by Stuart Brown, M.D., founder of the National Institute for Play, along with Christopher Vaughan, an experienced journalist and author. Published in 2009, this book describes the significance of play in the lives of animals and humans and how free play develops the social and locomotive skills in children that are necessary for creative thinking later in life. He used his observations of animals in play as well as the latest advances in neuroscience, biology, social science, and psychology to explain the role of play in brain development and social integration.

Since 2007, Mike Lanza has posted to his blog, Playborhood, longing for the “Leave it to Beaver” days that seem to be lost forever. Concerned that unstructured free play has “virtually vanished from the lives of most children in America,” he is committed to voicing his concerns to build a community of parents who will become more aware of the problems and seek to implement the best solutions.

In April 2012, Mike published a book on this topic entitled Playborhood: Turn Your Neighborhood Into a Place for Play. It is aimed at parents who would like to give their children a life of neighborhood play, but who need some inspiration and ideas on how to make it happen.1

• 1. Lanza, Mike. Private correspondence to Playground Professionals. 1 March 2012.

Playcare, Inc. designs play spaces, provides playground safety audits, and conducts playground safety trainings for Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and surrounding counties. They design play areas that are “safe, sensory rich, stimulating, developmentally appropriate, curriculum-based, accessible, and cost effective,” with the majority of their work involving day care and child care centers.1 Playground safety audits are a significant part of Playcare’s services.2

• 1. “Children's Playground Equipment.” Playcare, Incorporated. < http://playcare-inc.com/ > 7 May 2012.
• 2. “Playground Safety Philadelphia.” Playcare, Incorporated. < http://playcare-inc.com/playground-safety-philadelphia.html > 7 May 2012.

Playful City USA, sponsored by the Humana Foundation, is an application-based national recognition program honoring cities and towns that make play a priority and use innovative programs to get children active, playing, and healthy. Playful City USA communities make a commitment to play and physical activity by developing unique local action plans to increase the access to play in their community. In doing so, some of the most innovative concepts and cost-effective programs are being developed in Playful City USA communities. KaBOOM!, the national nonprofit organization dedicated to saving play, created Playful City USA in 2007 to help local governments address the Play Deficit.1

• 1. “Playful City USA Program Details.” KaBOOM!.

Playground Builders is a nonprofit registered charity dedicated to building playgrounds in war-torn areas in the world. They believe that playgrounds are places where “kids can be kids, community members can feel connected and empowered, new possibilities find a strong foundation and peace and hope begins.”1 With a motto of “Creating Play, Building Hope”2

• 1. “About Playground Builders.” Playground Builders. < http://www.playgroundbuilders.org/about-playground-builders > 1 Oct. 2012.
• 2. Anthony, Leslie. “Pique-n yer interest.” The Pique. 20 Oct. 2010. < http://www.playgroundbuilders.org/piqueinterest_oct20_10.pdf > 1 Oct.

Presented by the International Playground Contractors Association (NPCAI) and written by Curtis and Nicole Stoddard, the Playground Construction School Course Manual is a course manual which covers start to finish details of constructing a playground as well as information on support organizations, safety standards, and business regulations. A professional playground installer himself, Curtis Stoddard understands that “the installer is the final link in the playground process. Every playground builder has the responsibility to build the playground according to manufacturers’ specifications, industry safety guidelines, and ethical standards.”1

• 1. Stoddard, Curtis and Nicole Stoddard. Playground Construction School Course Manual.

The playground movement in America began as an answer to the industrial revolution realities of crowded cities and long work days. Hand-in-hand with the settlement houses being formed in the late 19th century, the playground movement sought to save the poor, immigrant, and homeless children from unhealthy crowded tenement neighborhoods. The reformers believed that “supervised play could improve the mental, moral, and physical well-being of children.”1

• 1. Bachrach, Julia Sniderman. “Playground Movement.” Encyclopedia of Chicago.

Marcus Veerman, an Australian teacher, arrived in Mae Sot, Thailand in 2008 to build classrooms. Instead he found the greatest need was to build playgrounds to encourage “interaction, cooperation, experimentation, and imagination” that could be found outside the “call-and-response” teaching method used for up to six hours a day in a classroom.1

• 1. “Founders Story.” Go Play! < http://www.goplayproject.org/2010/06/founders-story/ > 14 July 2011.

Playgrounds, Their Administration and Operation was published in 1936 by A. S. Barnes and Company. Edited by George D. Butler for the National Recreation Association, the book addresses the concerns of playground administrators and their day to day operations.

When written, the playground movement was still in its early stages of development. The function of the playground was seen as meeting several needs for the community: a place to have fun, to acquire life skills, to play safely, to build a healthy body, to improve mental health, to develop character, and to reduce delinquency.

The book proposes that the ideal playground is a place where:

Since the 1990s, PlayGuard Safety Surfacing has been manufacturing recycled rubber playground safety surfacing. As a brand of ECORE International, PlayGuard provides surfacing products for playgrounds as well as school gyms, sports centers, child day cares, indoor play areas, rooftops, and patios.

PlaySafe LLC is a global recreational consulting and playground service provider supporting numerous government agencies, private organizations, and schools. Founded in 1997 by Sam “Butch” DeFillippo, this company aids its customers in the design, purchase and installation of the safety playground equipment. Based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, PlaySafe has certifications as National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA) Certified Playground Safety Inspector (CPSI) and National Recreation and Park Association Certified Parks and Recreation Professional (CPRP). They are members of the National Executive Development School Advisory Board, National Risk Management & Safety School Planning Committee, and NRPA Playground Maintenance Service Course’s Curriculum Task Force.

Playskool, Inc. manufactures preschool and infant toys that engage young children in play and learning. What began as the idea of two retired women schoolteachers continues today with the belief that “Play is nature's classroom.”1

• 1. “The PLAYSKOOL Story.” PLAYSKOOL. < http://www.hasbro.com/playskool/en_US/discover/for-parents/why-playskool.cfm > 11 Nov. 2011.

Playtop Safer Surfacing manufactures impact-absorbing wet-pour safety surfacing for play spaces and walkways at children's playgrounds. Designed to minimize the risk of injury to children who fall in playgrounds, the Playtop surfacing material is “a continuous, joint-free, porous material made from rubber granules and polyurethane binders.”1

• 1. “Construction.” Playtop Safer Surfacing. < http://www.playtop.com/global/page.asp?node=675&sec=Construction > 30 Jan. 2012.

Playworks is a national, nonprofit organization that bolsters learning by providing safe, healthy, and inclusive play opportunities for school children.1 Founded by Jill Vialet under the name Sport4Kids, the name was changed to Playworks in July 2009.2

• 1. “About.” Playworks. < http://www.playworks.org/about > 23 Feb. 2011.
• 2. “Our Story.” Playworks.< http://www.playworks.org/about/our-story > 23 Feb. 2011.

The Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is a nonprofit interactive museum for young children, which provides “learning opportunities through play” that lead to a “lifetime of learning and cultural awareness.”1 Their mission centers around being: playful and fun, creative and innovative, educational, safe and clean, diverse, child-centered, family-focused, and collaborative.2

• 1. “About Us.” Please Touch Museum. < http://www.pleasetouchmuseum.org/about-us/ > 29 July 2012.
• 2. “Mission.” Please Touch Museum. < http://www.pleasetouchmuseum.org/about-us/mission/ > 11 July 2012.

PolyFiberCrete is a lightweight synthetic concrete-sandstone textured material molded into solid play structures and site furnishings. Using a patented process of cellular concrete, polymer additives, molds, sand, air bubbles, and sandblasting, UPC Parks makes grip-textured climbing rocks and walls, caves, ledges, benches, planters, and playground sculptures.1 PolyFiberCrete retains the strength and value of concrete while offering an exceptional climbing grip texture.

• 1. “Patent application title: Composition and Method of Using the Same to Make a Simulated Rock Climbing Wall.” Patentdocs. < http://www.faqs.org/patents/app/20080246179 > 25 April 2013.

Pop-Up Adventure Play (PUAP) is a “start-up social enterprise” that advocates and serves as a catalyst for play opportunities for children, families, and communities. PUAP’s work is greatly influenced by the international adventure playground movement and the United Kingdom’s profession of playwork. Operating primarily in the United States and the UK, the mission of PUAP is “to advocate for children’s hands-on and self-directed play within communities of supportive adults.”1

• 1. “Join the Movement!” Pop-Up Adventure Play. < http://www.popupadventureplay.org/ > 1 Feb. 2012.

The President's Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition (PCFSN) is an advisory committee whose mission is to educate and empower Americans to live a healthy lifestyle which includes regular physical activity and good nutrition.1

• 1. “Mission Statement.” President's Council on Fitness, Sports, and Nutrition. < http://www.fitness.gov/about-us/what-we-do/mission-statement/ > 30 Sep. 2011.

Pretend play is a form of symbolic play where children use objects, actions or ideas to represent other objects, actions, or ideas using their imaginations to assign roles to inanimate objects or people.

Toddlers begin to develop their imaginations, with sticks becoming boats and brooms becoming horses. Their play is mostly solitary, assigning roles to inanimate objects like their dolls and teddy bears.1

• 1. Frost, Joe L., Pei-San Brown, John A. Sutterby, Candra D. Thornton, The Developmental Benefits of Playgrounds Olney, MD: Association for Childhood Education International, 2004. p. 23.

Founded in 1990, Project Fit America (PFA) is a national non-profit public charity committed to physical fitness for children. Sponsored by numerous hospitals, foundations, and health organizations, Project Fit America donates to schools, grades K-8, broad-based fitness programs, which is in over 750 schools across the United States.1

• 1. “Who We Are.” Project Fit America. < http://www.projectfitamerica.org/who_are_we.html > 24 Jan. 2011.

A protrusion on playground equipment is a projection that has the potential to cause bodily injury to a user who comes in contact with it.1 Protrusions are not allowed to be on playground equipment. A Certified Playground Safety Inspector (CPSI) uses his projection gauges to determine whether projections are protrusions.2

Protrusions can be as small as a nail or bolt, or as large as a handhold or rung that is projecting out from play equipment.

• 1. “Standard Consumer Safety Performance Specification for Playground Equipment for Public Use.” ASTM International (ASTM) standard F1487-07, 3.1.29, p. 4.
• 2. Ibid., ASTM F1487, Section 6.3, pp. 6-7.