Media Contact:
Theresa Roach
Active Communities Manager
810-235-7894 | troach@crim.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 25, 2019
GENERAL MOTORS FLINT TOOL AND DIE, UAW LOCAL 659, BUILD BENCHES FOR STUDENTS AT PIERCE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
(FLINT, MI) – Through a partnership with the Crim Fitness Foundation, skilled tradespeople from General Motors Flint Tool and Die, UAW Local 659, volunteered to build eight benches for Pierce Elementary School’s campus. Without the volunteer efforts of the GM Skilled Tradespeople, the bench project would have cost the Crim and Flint Community Schools over $6,000.
The benches are the result of a placemaking project led by the Crim Fitness Foundation’s Active Communities Department and Flint’s Community Education Initiative. Pierce parents, students and neighborhoods worked with the Crim staff this summer to identify ways to improve the playground and resources to help bring their vision to life. The first step of the project was to design, build and install benches around the perimeter of the playground area.
“We are very fortunate to have had the chance to work with the volunteers from GM Tool and Die on this project. Simply having more seating on campus is going to make a big difference for our families,” said Cade Surface, Active Communities Program Coordinator. “The next step is to identify resources that will help us to replace broken playground equipment.”
Pierce’s Physical Activity Coordinator, Justin Zigorus, said, “The benches are a great addition to the playground. They’re getting plenty of use and having some next to the basketball courts has been really useful.”
Flint’s Community Education Initiative has purchased an Imagination Playground for the school as an additional way to increase students’ access to physical activity. The Imagination Playground is “a breakthrough playspace system created by architect David Rockwell for Imagination Playground LLC, uses uniquely shaped foam blocks and loose parts to empower children to design their own course of play.”
Through its active communities work, the Crim Fitness Foundation seeks to increase Flint and Genesee County residents’ satisfaction with the quality of life in their neighborhoods by advocating for and supporting policy, systems and environment changes that provide equitable access to safe, healthy and vibrant communities.
