NEWS
Live Well Allegheny Launches “Rethink Your Drink” Campaign to Promote Healthy Water Drinking Habits
Live Well Allegheny has launched a campaign to promote healthier beverage choices, called “Rethink Your Drink.”
Photo credit: Live Well Allegheny
Live Well Allegheny has launched a campaign to promote healthier beverage choices called “Rethink Your Drink.” The campaign provides education on the effects of consuming sugar-sweetened beverages, like sodas and most juices, and encourages water as the best drink option to build healthy habits in children and teens.
(This post was updated on August 3, 2023 to include the Rethink Your Drink campaign Recipe Cards).
How To Participate in the Campaign
Allegheny County residents, schools, municipalities, afterschool programs, child care centers or providers, and community partners are encouraged by Live Well Allegheny to get involved in the campaign through a variety of methods.
Visit the Rethink Your Drink campaign webpage to find more resources and information, including a campaign toolkit. The toolkit includes:
Activity ideas for things to do at home, a community event, school fair, or summer camp;
social media messages; and
resources about the impact of sugar-sweetened beverages for children and families.
Those interested in participating can access free campaign materials, including water bottles, through the Rethink Your Drink Campaign Request Form.
Rethink Your Drink Fruit Infusion Activity and Recipe Cards
To further promote the importance of drinking water, Live Well Allegheny has created a Fruit Infused Water Activity and Recipe Cards to "infuse" some fun into regular water drinking habits.
About Live Well Allegheny
Live Well Allegheny, an initiative of the Allegheny County Health Department, is a county-wide campaign to improve the overall health and wellness of Allegheny County residents.
Visit the Live Well Allegheny website to learn more about the program and the Rethink Your Drink campaign.
2023 Ultimate Play Day Recap
Ultimate Play Day 2023, held at Lower McKinley Park, was terrific! Playful Pittsburgh Collaborative wants to give a giant shout-out to everyone who made this event a phenomenal success!
2023 Ultimate Play Day Recap
Ultimate Play Day 2023, held at Lower McKinley Park, was terrific! Playful Pittsburgh Collaborative wants to give a giant shout-out to everyone who made this event a phenomenal success!
Photo credit: Crystal Joy Photography
It was sponsored by Trying Together, CitiParks, and ZeroFossil as part of Remake Learning Days, and despite the rainy weather at the start of the event, the day was unforgettable. As soon as we started line dancing, the sun came out, the rain stopped, and the fun continued. With 27 playful partners present, interactive activities were abundant for everyone to enjoy.
From balloon art to airbrush tattoos, from a pop-up ball pit to art projects, there was something for everyone, especially adults, to experience the joy of being a child and playing again. Playful Pittsburgh Collaborative sincerely hopes everyone who did attend remembers to infuse playfulness and fun into their daily routine. We all need to experience the side effects of pure joy.
The transformative power of play is endless. It brings people together, fosters relationships, and teaches us vital communication, sharing, and conflict-resolution skills. Both children and adults benefit greatly from play. It's truly amazing to witness playful interactions occur naturally. Walking around the event and witnessing all the exciting interactions was genuinely magical. Play unites us and helps us understand each other with more empathy.
This event required a collective effort, and we couldn't have achieved it without the support of our community partners and attendees. Thank you all for joining in on the fun!
Photo credit: Crystal Joy Photography
Immense gratitude goes out to all the organizations who supported Ultimate Play Day with an interactive activity:
Babysitting Logistics LLC, Affiliate in Play (Tier 1)
Carnegie Mellon University - Entertainment Technology Center, Activist of Play (Tier 4)
CitiParks, Scholar of Play (Tier 3)
City Squeakers, Promoter of Play (Tier 2)
Hatch Partners in Play, Activist of Play (Tier 4)
Pittsburgh Center for Creative Reuse, Promoter of Play (Tier 2)
Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, Promoter of Play (Tier 2)
Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy, Activist of Play (Tier 4)
Pittsburgh Toy Lending Library, Promoter of Play (Tier 2)
Squirrel Hill Urban Coalition, Believer of Play (Base)
Sunshine Parties And Play LLC, Promoter of Play (Tier 2)
The Children's Museum of Pittsburgh, Activist of Play (Tier 4)
Trying Together, Activist of Play (Tier 4)
University of Pittsburgh - Department of Health and Human Development, Opt-in to Play (Floating)
Venture Outdoors, Affiliate of Play (Tier 1)
Community Partners in Play for Ultimate Play Day 2023
Make sure you come out to Ultimate Play Day at Lower McKinley Park on Sunday, May 7 to experience a full array of interactive activities and playful experiences.
We can’t wait to play in May!
Make sure you come out to Lower McKinley Park on Sunday, May 7 to experience a full array of interactive activities and playful experiences.
For now, here’s a handful of community partners who are coming out to support Ultimate Play Day 2023:
Pittsburgh Toy Lending Library will be joining us with some imaginative play
Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy will be providing a loose parts, nature play activity
Sunshine Parties And Play LLC is setting up a play area for younger guests
Tree Pittsburgh will be present and facilitating a nature walk with tree identification
Pittsburgh Center for Creative Reuse will be facilitating Reuse-A-Palooza, an art activity
Venture Outdoors will be playing Backyard Bass and Kayak Cornhole
Allegheny County Health Department will be presenting healthy water recipes
There’s still room for a few more activities! If you and your organization are interested in participating as a Playful Vendor with Ultimate Play Day, send an email with your name, organization, and interactive activity idea to playfulpgh@tryingtogether.org before April 30.
If you’d like to be part of Ultimate Play Day as a volunteer, send an email to the aforementioned address, and Adam James will be happy to coordinate with you!
Playful Pittsburgh Collaborative would like to extend an extra large thank you to the members of Beltzhoover Neighborhood Council, Brashear Association, and Knoxville Community Council for welcoming us into their neighborhood and helping us create a memorable Ultimate Play Day 2023.
Highlighting McKinley Park in Pittsburgh
In our feature post for our March newsletter, we highlight McKinley Park's rich history in Pittsburgh and explore the many amenities, equipment, and sections of the park that we can't wait to discover with you at Ultimate Play Day!
McKinley Park restored entrance. Photo credit: City of Pittsburgh/CitiParks
History
McKinley Park is one of the oldest parks in Pittsburgh. Yet, many Pittsburghers are unaware of its ties to the history of the city or are unsure of the park’s location. In preparation for Ultimate Play Day, Playful Pittsburgh Collaborative wanted to fill you in on all things McKinley Park.
Shelter House with Rotating Band Stand, September 20, 1937 which was demolished on June 22, 1964. Photo credit: City of Pittsburgh/CitiParks
Restoration
After years of inattention, historic stone entryways that once welcomed visitors to McKinley Park were deteriorating. With local government aid and state funding, Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy led a project to restore these historic structures.
The 2013 McKinley Park Entrance and Rain Gardens project reconnected the park to its visitors and community, improved accessibility, and preserved important historic features: a stone wall and steps at the park entrance, which date back to the 1930s.
Amenities
The 79-acre park, which historians say gives one “a euphoric sense of the countryside,” features historic trees, basketball courts, playgrounds, a skate park, a baseball field, a senior center, and wooded hiking trails.
It is also home to a mural called “Home Court Advantage,” inspired by the positive role that the McKinley Park basketball courts have played in residents’ lives.
McKinley Park Today
McKinley Park is truly a historical site and continues to serve as a connector for the Beltzhoover community and its residents.
The park is sectioned into two separate spaces: Upper McKinley and Lower McKinley.
Upper McKinley is located at the intersection of Delmont Avenue and Amesbury Street, and is close to parking and the Activities Center. In this section, you can find basketball courts, hiking trails, and playground equipment, as well as the Rain Gardens,which is full of flowers and other native plants that local bugs and animals love.
Lower McKinley is located along Bausman Street, just off of Route 51, and will serve as the main location of Ultimate Play Day 2023. This section of the park boasts baseball, tennis, and basketball courts, a running/walking track, playground equipment, and a skate park.
Lower McKinley also has a shelter available for rent to park visitors.
Learn More
We invite you to listen to the McKinley Park episode of the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy’s “For The Love of Parks” podcast to learn more about the park’s history and community impact. To learn more about future park improvements, visit the Parks Conservancy website.
Also, keep an eye out for the forthcoming McKinley Park historical information being developed by Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy and Playful Pittsburgh Collaborative.
Special thanks to Nicole Stevens from Brashear Community Group, Sharlee Ellision of the Knoxville Community Council, Citiparks, and the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy for providing history information of this “southern gem” of a park.
Ultimate Play Day
And now you’re all caught up on all things McKinley Park! Be sure to take time to check out the park ahead of Ultimate Play Day.
Special thanks to Nicole Stevens from Brashear Community Group, the Knoxville Community Council, Citiparks, and the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy for providing information on this unique park.
If you have any questions about Ultimate Play Day, please email us at playfulpgh@tryingtogether.org.
Save the Date: Ultimate Play Day 2023, May 7 from 1 - 4 p.m.
Welcome our newest Playful Pittsburgh Collaborative Members! - February 2023
Welcome our newest Playful Pittsburgh Collaborative Members!
Hatch - Member Level: Activist of Play
Hatch is dedicated to fostering children’s creative thinking, confidence, and natural curiosity through open-ended play. The organization has transformed over its history to become a collaborative city-wide initiative aimed at expanding access to joyful, enriching, and playful learning opportunities for children and transformative embedded professional development experiences for educators.
Hatch Partners in Play works alongside educators, students, and community partners to pilot a program aimed at ensuring children’s right to play in Western Pennsylvania and beyond
For more information on Hatch, visit hatchpgh.com.
Pittsburgh Cultural Trust - Member Level: Promotor of Play
Since 1984, the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, a non-profit arts organization, has worked to make the Steel City a place where the arts can flourish. The Cultural Trust's efforts focus on the cultural and economic development of the Cultural District, a 14-square-block area of downtown Pittsburgh.
The Cultural Trust strives every day to enrich the city of Pittsburgh’s vibrancy, diversity, and prosperity.
For more information on the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust and its programming, visit trustarts.org.
The Relationship Between Learning through Play and Holistic Skills
Do you know that play builds brains? In a recent study conducted by The Lego Foundation, the organization looked at the research that shows how playful learning experiences lay the foundations for brain development and develop 21st century skills for children.
“Learning through play helps children develop the skills they need to thrive”
Children are naturally curious and come into the world ready to experiment and learn through play. Using play as an effective learning concept not only helps children to adapt the structure of their brains, but also to strengthen the skills children need to continue being engaged, flexible learners for their whole lives.
Research shows that people learn best from experiences that are joyful, that meaningfully connect the play to their lives, actively engaging, allow testing things iteratively, and are socially interactive. These experiences will not always occur at the same time for children, which is why children need variety in the types of play that they experience.
Here are five characteristics of playful learning experiences that help children grow and thrive:
Joyful - This is all about the joy of discovery. Joyful play sparks the brain’s reward centers, triggering a feel-good chemical called dopamine. Higher dopamine is linked to better memory, attention, creativity, mental flexibility and motivation.
Meaningful - Playful learning is meaningful when it links new experiences – like seeing a horse in a field – to familiar ones – like the horse in a child’s favorite picture book. Drawing those connections expands childrens’ grasp of the world. And it lights up a number of different areas of the brain: motivation, sense-making, reflection and memory.
Actively Engaging - When a child is really involved in an activity, they take charge of their learning. Making decisions and pushing away distractions have long-term benefits for what’s called 'executive control' – how we focus, plan, remember instructions and juggle tasks.
Iterative - Practice makes... creative. When children keep adapting and improving games, skills, ideas and activities, they’re firing up reward and memory networks. In the long term, that’s linked to flexible, innovative thinking.
Socially Interactive - Playing with others is often more fun – and it builds healthy relationships. That’s crucial for better mental health, as well as teaching empathy and preparing the brain to deal with stresses and challenges throughout children’s lives.
Play also helps to unlock certain holistic skills from children that benefit them throughout their lives. Through play, children flex and find their way. Instead of noting down rigid facts and figures, they hone ways of thinking, creating, working together and testing ideas.
Here are the five super skills that are developed when children learn through play:
Physical Skills - Physical play releases endorphins, which makes physical play great mood-boosters no matter the age of the person. Physical play is more than just rough and tumble. Balancing blocks, planting flowers, or building models are all physical games that build fine motor skills.
Social Skills - When children work together to solve problems, they learn to think through ideas, listen to others, and even negotiate. Playing together builds empathy by helping children think about their teammates. Being able to collaborate will help them do better at school and work, build friends for life, and connect with their caregivers and families.
Emotional Skills - Play is also practice for dealing with unpredictable or uncertain emotional moments. Children enjoy fun and cheers with play, but also can face frustration when things do not go their way. Practicing how to manage emotions level-headed in a crisis is an essential skill that carries immense social-emotional benefits as children grow.
Cognitive Skills - When learning is playful, children get immersed in creating strategies and solving problems. The joy of play gives them the incentive to develop complex reasoning skills, memory, and concentration. Since children never know what the future holds, all that flexible thinking will help them adapt to whatever new careers and life challenges the adult world has to offer them.
Creative Skills - Creativity is how children tell the world about themselves through writing, storytelling, performing, artwork, and…how they draw connections, make sense of abstract ideas, and test things out. Creative play puts children in charge of exploring ideas, relationships, spaces and problems. Creative play also sparks confidence, as they learn to trust their natural curiosity.
To learn more about developing children’s learning through play and the science behind it, visit The Lego Foundation Learning Through Play website.