Bay area footwear company Livie & Luca is gearing up to help build a playground in Richmond, CA, on October 26. Inspired by their motto to “spread joy” and their focus on social responsibility, Livie & Luca set out to fund a children’s playground in an underserved area of their community. Together with 100 volunteers from the City of Richmond, Pogo Park, KABOOM!, and local residents, the Livie & Luca team will help build a safe, enriching playground for children of all ages and abilities in just one day.
The new playground at Belding Garcia Park will provide over 1,100 children in Richmond with updated equipment and a fresh design based on children’s drawings. With 150 playground builds slated for 2013 alone, the national non-profit KABOOM! is dedicated to building playgrounds to keep children active and healthy
This will be the first collaboration for a playground build for KABOOM! and Livie & Luca, a popular shoe brand for children and women devoted to giving back. Each month, Livie & Luca donates 10 percent of their online sales to rotating charities, and founders Mitzi Rivas and Amie Garcia have long had the goal to fund a playground accessible for all children.
“There were several criteria that were important to us,” said Mitzi, a mother of two who started Livie & Luca in 2006. “The playground should be accessible to and provide sensory input for all children, including those with disabilities, that it promote health and wellness, that is be sustainable in the broadest sense, and that its components be as natural as possible.”
The playground build will start at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday, October 26, at Belding Garcia Park, 515 15th Street, Richmond, CA 94804. A ribbon-cutting ceremony will take place at 2:30 p.m. to dedicate the new play area.
To learn more about the project and Livie & Luca, please visit www.livieandluca.com.