With the recent completion of a playground, the Orlando Magic front office staff has now contributed more than 4,000 hours of hands-on community volunteerism this year. Last Friday, 200 members of the Magic staff spent eight hours creating a safe place to play for kids.

Magic Players Dwight Howard, Carlos Arroyo and James Augustine along with more than 150 volunteers from the Orlando Magic, the Central Florida Leased Housing Corp., organizers from KaBoom! and residents of the Winter Park community joined forces on Friday, March 7 to build a new, safe playground at the Santa Barbara Apartments at 6999 Aloma Ave. in Winter Park. The new playground’s design was based on drawings provided by children (residents of Santa Barbara apartments) who attended a design day event in December.

The new playground will provide hundreds of children from the Santa Barbara apartments and the surrounding Winter Park community with a safe place to play. The play space is the second build by KaBoom! and the Magic, the third by KaBoom! and Central Florida Leased Housing Corp. and one of more than 225 KaBoom! will lead across the country in 2008 in an effort to provide a great place to play within walking distance of every child in America.

The Magic's efforts in the community are part of the "NBA Cares" program where over the next five years the league, its players and teams will raise and contribute $100 million for charity, donate more than 1 million hours of hands-on volunteer service to communities worldwide, and build more than 100 places where kids can learn and play.