Delta, KaBOOM! Partner to Influence Detroit Kids' Lives with Play

DETROIT, June 1, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL) partnered with KaBOOM! Saturday to build a playground at Woodbridge Community Youth Center, which serves more than 4,500 kids in the Detroit area. The build marks Delta's first playground build in Detroit and the airline's seventh build in partnership with KaBOOM!.

"Delta is proud to partner with KaBOOM! as we positively impact the lives of children nationwide and inspire communities to promote and support play," said Tad Hutcheson, Delta's Vice President of Community Affairs. "At Delta, we proactively address overall well-being at the core, and KaBOOM! elevates our mission of investing in global health and wellness efforts in the communities where we live, work and serve."

More than 280 volunteers, including 180 Delta employees and residents of the Detroit community, mixed 20,000 pounds of concrete, shoveled mulch, installed a fence surrounding the playground, painted art work and assembled a new playground structure in just six hours as part of the one-day build. The new playground is exclusively designed from drawings by children in the community.

At the ribbon cutting, Andrea Newman, Delta's Senior Vice President of Government Affairs, surprised attendees when she presented a check to the Woodbridge Community Youth Center for $10,000, which will assist the organization with long-term maintenance of the playground and support the programs it provides.

Isaiah McKinnon, Deputy Mayor of Detroit, attended and thanked Delta and KaBOOM! for the new playground.

The airline has built previous playgrounds in Atlanta, Los Angeles, Minneapolis and Seattle and is scheduled to build two additional playgrounds this year in Atlanta and Seattle.

Through its community outreach, Delta works to promote an improved quality of life for everyone in the communities it serves. Delta's more than 6,500 Detroit-based employees are active and involved in the community by participating in activities such as building homes with Habitat for Humanity Detroit and playgrounds with KaBOOM!, collecting pints of blood for the American Red Cross, teaching financial literacy to students at Junior Achievement of Southeastern Michigan, walking in support of Motor City Pride, the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life and AIDS Walk Detroit, serving the children at C.S. Mott's Children's Hospital, North Star Reach, Marine Toys for Tots and the YMCA of Metropolitan Detroit, feeding the hungry through Gleaners Community Food Bank, serving the troops at the Michigan Freedom Center, promoting the arts at the Detroit Institute of Arts, and serving the homeless youth through Covenant House of Michigan.  

About KaBOOM! KaBOOM! is the national non-profit dedicated to giving all kids – particularly those growing up in poverty in America – the childhood they deserve filled with balanced and active play, so they can thrive. Since 1996, KaBOOM! has collaborated with partners to build, open or improve nearly 16,300 playgrounds, engaged more than one million volunteers and served 8.1 million kids. KaBOOM! creates great places to play, inspires communities to promote and support play, and works to drive the national discussion about the importance of play in fostering healthy and productive lives. To learn why #playmatters: visit kaboom.org or join the conversation at twitter.com/kaboom or facebook.com/kaboom.

About Woodbridge Community Youth Center Woodbridge Community Youth Center (WCYC) a Detroit-based community organization that is operated by Abundant Care Training Services (ACTS), a faith-based nonprofit that provides services to Detroit youth.  Since ACTS inception in 2003, WCYC has served more than 20,000 Detroit youth in the area of academics, athletics and arts.  WCYC offers afterschool tutorial programs, music instrumentation, culinary, dance, wood work and competitive volleyball and baseball programs on the state-of-art William Clay Ford Field.                                              

About Delta Delta Air Lines serves more than 170 million customers each year. Delta was named to FORTUNE magazine's top 50 World's Most Admired Companies in addition to being named the most admired airline for the fourth time in five years. Additionally, Delta has ranked No.1 in the Business Travel News Annual Airline survey for four consecutive years, a first for any airline. With an industry-leading global network, Delta and the Delta Connection carriers offer service to 335 destinations in 64 countries on six continents. Headquartered in Atlanta, Delta employs nearly 80,000 employees worldwide and operates a mainline fleet of more than 700 aircraft. The airline is a founding member of the SkyTeam global alliance and participates in the industry's leading trans-Atlantic joint venture with Air France-KLM and Alitalia as well as a newly formed joint venture with Virgin Atlantic. Including its worldwide alliance partners, Delta offers customers more than 15,000 daily flights, with key hubs and markets including Amsterdam, Atlanta, Boston, Detroit, Los Angeles, Minneapolis/St. Paul, New York-JFK, New York-LaGuardia, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Salt Lake City, Seattle and Tokyo-Narita. Delta has invested billions of dollars in airport facilities, global products, services and technology to enhance the customer experience in the air and on the ground. Additional information is available on delta.com, Twitter @Delta, Google.com/+Delta, Facebook.com/delta and Delta's blog takingoff.delta.com.

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SOURCE Delta Air Lines