While Playworks was initially founded in response to an issue I was presented with during a visit with a principal, it has been the collective will of the many that has made us successful. Scaling Playworks has been this extraordinary process of rallying like minds, a coming together of people willing to wear their hearts on their sleeves and interested in making safe play a staple at American recess. At every turn, I have been overwhelmed by the energy and passion of the people I get to work with, and by the enthusiastic welcomes we have received as we launch in new cities.
This amazing collective will was on my mind during a Cities of Service event I attended last week. Alongside New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Newark, New Jersey Mayor Cory Booker, I gathered with students, teachers, coaches, family members and media at Newark, New Jersey’s Broadway Elementary School – a Playworks school since 2009 – to talk about how collective will can wield change and effect solutions – just as it has for Playworks. Mayor Booker called on all Newarkians to volunteer – to better their community en masse by flexing their collective will muscles, so to speak.
(*see more photos here)
As I looked around at the sea of both young and not-so-young but very inspired faces, I was reminded of the singular importance of collective will. It was so clear, as I sat there, that our will to make change happen – just like our capacity to play – is something that is already inside each and every one of us. The key is in tapping it. It’s not about waiting for Superman to make change happen – we’re all Superman if we can harness the power of our collective will.
Want to see changes in play at your school? Check out our website for ideas on how you can gather enough collective will to make it happen – and then give us a call. Together, we have what it takes to make safe play happen at your school.
