According to research from the CDC, healthy lifestyle habits formed through play, including physical activity, can lower the risk of obesity and its associated health issues.  Play is important to children’s physical, emotional, social and intellectual development, but research shows kids are becoming more sedentary and not getting the activity they need.

DPS (Dr Pepper Snapple Group) believes in healthy lifestyles that are built on balancing calories taken in, and calories burned off. For this reason, DPS launched their initiative Let’s Play, which provides funding, equipment and play areas for families to be able to make active play an easily accessible goal.

We wanted to be a part of this initiative and help create a safe and accessible place for our local community, here in Montgomery, where kids to learn, explore, grow and just be kids.

Watch what we were able to do together in Montgomery!

In six hours, on a Saturday in June, volunteers from Dr Pepper Snapple Group (DPS), Common Ground Montgomery, Montgomery Coca-Cola, and the community joined KaBOOM! on Saturday, June 9 to transform an empty site into a kid-designed, state-of-the-art playground in just six hours at Common Ground Montgomery.

Through Let’s Play and our special business partnership with DPS, Montgomery Coca-Cola provided signage and Coca-Cola products to enjoy.  Most importantly, plenty of Dasani® water and POWERADE® were available to keep 300 volunteers hydrated and replenished!

Because of the special partnership between DPS and Montgomery Coca-Cola, a local business and sales center of Coca-Cola Bottling Co. UNITED, these beliefs were made into a reality for the Montgomery community.

For the benefit of the community and its well-being, Coca-Cola UNITED and DPS have been able to work closely on a number of successful Let’s Play builds across the Southeast.

Locals, employed by Montgomery Coca-Cola Bottling Company, fellow associates out of Birmingham-based parent company Coca-Cola UNITED, and groups such as the Alabama State Football Team and Maxwell Air Force came together to bring this playground to life to serve the community – digging dirt, throwing mulch, painting grilling lunch, and more.

Culminating the event, everyone enjoyed the ribbon-cutting ceremony celebrating the results of volunteers, community and business partners working together- the newly built playground to make play the easy choice for kids and families in Montgomery.

Together, by the end of a mere six hour work day, over 300 community members along with sponsors and volunteers helped lay mulch, build playground equipment, and make lunch for their fellow volunteers.

Montgomery had a playground equipped with slides, swings, a small rock-climbing wall, and even benches for parents to sit on and enjoy watching their children play.

About Let’s Play: Let’s Play is an initiative by Dr Pepper Snapple Group to provide the funding, equipment and play spaces to help kids and families make active play a daily priority. Through Let’s Play, Dr Pepper Snapple partners with two non-profit organizations, KaBOOM! and Good Sports, to build and improve playgrounds in underserved communities and provide grants for sports equipment. In this way, Dr Pepper Snapple is doing our part to help eliminate the play deficit by making active play possible for more kids. Since its launch in 2011, Let’s Play has provided more than 11 million children with more opportunities to play via safe, accessible playgrounds and sports equipment. For more information, please visit LetsPlay.com or Facebook.com/LetsPlay.

About Common Ground Montgomery:   Common Ground Montgomery is a non-profit, community development organization located in Montgomery, Alabama. The mission of CGM is to revitalize the Washington Park community. Started in 2006, CGM is a non-denominational Christian ministry that focuses on youth development and leadership, after school programs and camps, mentoring, cross-cultural relationships and racial reconciliation. CGM has spun off one community initiative, a housing renovation and adult financial literacy organization, that has become its own non-profit. CGM’s most recent initiative is focused on providing food, a clothes closet, showers, and clothes washing capabilities to families and individuals in need. Find us online at www.cgm.life, or @cgmlife on Facebook, Instragram, and Twitter.

About Montgomery Coca-Cola Bottling:    Montgomery Coca-Cola is the sales, distribution and production operations arm for Coca-Cola Bottling Company UNITED, which was founded in 1902 and is headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama.  The Company, which has operations in seven southeastern states, is engaged in the production, sales and distribution of a diverse portfolio of sparkling (Coca-Cola, diet Coke, Coke Zero Sugar, Sprite, Fanta, Dr Pepper) and still (Dasani, Smartwater, Powerade, Gold Peak, Monster, Minute Maid) non-alcoholic brands under exclusive franchise agreements principally with The Coca-Cola Company and The Dr Pepper Company.  Montgomery Coca-Cola has approximately 500 associates and serves retail and On Premise customers throughout the River Region.

About KaBOOM!: KaBOOM! is the national non-profit dedicated to giving all kids – especially those living in poverty – the childhood they deserve through great, safe places to play. KaBOOM! inspires communities to make play the easy choice and works to drive the national discussion about the importance of PLAYces. KaBOOM! has collaborated with partners to build or restore more than 17,000 playspaces, engaged more than 1.5 million volunteers and served over 9 million kids. To learn why play matters for all kids, visit kaboom.org and join the conversation at twitter.com/kaboom, facebook.com/kaboom and instagram.com/kaboom. #playmatters #PLAYceforKids