Volunteers from Morgan Stanley Wealth Management along with teams from AmeriCorps, KaBOOM! and Whitefoord, Inc., worked side-by-side to build a new, safe and engaging playground for families in southeastern Atlanta Friday. Nearly 150 volunteers transformed an empty site into a state-of-the-art playground in just five hours.
 
The new playground sits on Whitefoord, Inc.’s Wylie Street location and will give 250 children and their families within the community a new place to play outdoors.
 
“Morgan Stanley is honored to be a part of this community project and help build Whitefoord’s children a play space they deserve,” said Michael Outlaw, managing director and Buckhead Complex manager at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management. “It’s exciting and rewarding to watch our team of more than 70 volunteers, from our Buckhead and Perimeter Complex offices, working alongside others in the community to accomplish this special project in such a short amount of time.”
 
The playground build was an early kickoff to Morgan Stanley’s Global Volunteer Month in June and is part of the firm’s commitment to supporting healthy starts and solid education for children. Safe places to play are vital to that foundation.
 
The Morgan Stanley Foundation’s long-standing collaboration with KaBOOM! helps ensure children in communities across the country have access to safe play spaces. This is the nineteenth playground Morgan Stanley has partnered with KaBOOM! to build and the first in metro Atlanta.
 
Whitefoord, Inc. is a unique community resource that connects quality healthcare and education services for children and families in southeast Atlanta. The organization believes that playgrounds are hands-on classrooms that expand and enhance the learning opportunities provided in their Early Childhood Development and Beyond School Hours programs, while also providing essential physical, creative, cognitive, social and emotional development.