Calabasas community spirit shines in park effort
By John Loesing
Acorn Staff Writer

JOHN LOESING/The Acorn BUILDING A FUTURE-Ashley Akers, top, and Sidney Greathouse chip in with shovels during a volunteer construction day at Grape Arbor Park in Calabasas. Both work for the Cheesecake Factory, a Calabasas-based company that donated $30,000 in playground equipment for the community park. Greathouse works locally; Akers comes from corporate offices in Florida.

At Grape Arbor Park in Calabasas last Thursday, the hustle and bustle began at 7 a.m. and didn’t end until dark.

Not children playing, but adults working mightily.

Almost 100 volunteers from the local community and across the United States chipped in to install new playground equipment for the park at Canwood Street and Parkville Road.

The Cheesecake Factory, a Calabasas-based company for more than 20 years, donated some $30,000 worth of slides, swings and other items, while KaBoom, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization that helps kids, organized the volunteer work.

Now in its fifth year, KaBoom has partnered with corporations to build more than 250 playgrounds across the nation. The new, 2,500 square-foot play area at Grape Arbor is their first project of 2001.

"[KaBoom] is in the business of instilling hope, making safe and accessible playground equipment for all children," said Peter D’Amelio, senior vice-president of the Cheesecake Factory and chairman of the board for KaBoom.

"We really feel children’s developmental skills all start in the playground," said D’Amelio, the father of 2-year-old twins. "If there are no playgrounds, that doesn’t happen."

More than 30 of the volunteers came from Cheesecake Factory offices outside of California, including Robbie McGowan of Kansas City. Except for a lunch break, they worked non-stop, pouring cement, planting poles, tightening bolts and raking sawdust.

"It’s great," McGowan said. "It’s a legacy that will live on for the kids. That’s what it’s for."

Volunteers also arrived from Illinois and Florida to lend a hand.

"We get help from everybody," said Keith Heisler, a construction coordinator. "You never know what you’re going to run into, but we take time to show them what to do."

Soon after the project was completed, children started playing.

The new playground is part of a $175,000 capital improvement project at the park that includes upgrades to the basketball court and restrooms, and renovation to the actual grape arbor that’s there.

Also in the city’s plans for this year and next year are improvements to Gates Canyon Park on Thousand Oaks Boulevard, according to John Keisler, Calabasas community services director.

The equipment donation at Grape Arbor was a nice, unexpected touch, Keisler said. He wasn’t aware of KaBoom’s intentions until just a few weeks ago.

"This will allow us to stretch our bucks a little further," Keisler said. "This was a park that had a desire from the homeowners’ association in the Saratoga tract. They had expressed the need for playground equipment and this was the site."

D’Amelio said children from all walks of life deserve to have good, safe places to play.

"Calabasas is a great area, but we’ve also been in some of the most deprived areas, too," D’Amelio said. "That’s what’s great about KaBoom, there are no barriers."