April 24, 2026

Killona playground designed by kids, built by volunteers

September 12, 2007 Shonna Riggs Lifestyles, Social

Jan Walker from the United Way of St. Charles Parish, looks on while the kids create ideas for their playground.
Once a design is selected, 150 volunteers parishwide will assemble the new playground in Killona, October 24.

Killona kids designed their own playground as part of a community service project spearheaded by Craig Howat, a Hahnville resident and Luling Elementary School teacher.

The Killona Park, located at 201 Highway 3141, will be the site for the new play area and more than 150 volunteers from Americares, St. Charles Parish Parks and Recreation, Luling Elementary School, and organizers from the company KaBOOM!, will complete a dream play area for the kids. Killona children worked for an hour to come up with the playground’s design and volunteers will forge ahead and build the play area in one day.

Kick-off for the new project will be Oct. 24.

“As part of our initiative to reach out to our families in Killona, we have pursued and received $40,000 in funding to build our students a dream playground,” Howat said. “There was a design day held Aug. 22, at Luling Elementary School and 20 students who live in Killona created, from their imagination, the playground they’ve always wanted.

“This grant is basically a way for us at Luling Elementary to reach out to the Killona community,” Howat said. “We want the Killona children to feel we care about them.”

The new playground will provide hundreds of children in the Killona community a safe place to play. Once completed, the playground will be the fourth built by KaBOOM! and AmeriCares, and one of more than 200 KaBOOM! will construct across the country in 2007 in an effort to provide a great place to play within walking distance of every child in America. The build will be the 1,311 for KaBOOM!, the 182 in 2007 alone, and the 65 built as part of Operation Playground – the KaBOOM! initiative to build 100 playgrounds in areas affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

“United Way of St. Charles joined forces with Mr. Howat because we felt the project was an awesome idea,” Marie Scantlebury, spokeswoman for the United Way said.

KaBOOM! is a national nonprofit organization that, since 1995, has used its innovative community-build model to bring together business and community interests for the construction of more than 1,200 new playgrounds, skate parks, sports fields and ice rinks across North America. For more information, visit www.kaboom.org.