Let’s Play America was founded in January 2015 by Pat Rumbaugh (“The Play Lady”) and Daniel Nakamura to encourage people of all ages to give themselves time to play daily.
It all began in March 2009 when Pat formed a play committee in Takoma Park, Maryland that, in late 2010, became TakomaPlays!. This organization consisted of people who wanted to promote play in their community.
The group of play advocates met regularly and began to plan free play events. They also applied to the nonprofit KaBOOM and succeeded in having Takoma Park designated as a Playful City USA in 2009. Takoma Park was named a Playful City every year, until the program ended in 2017.
Pat’s work with TakomaPlays! led her to believe that communities all over America would benefit from developing similar organizations. She and Daniel decided to co-found Let’s Play America to bring this vision to communities throughout the country (and possibly even the world!).
TakomaPlays! became part of the larger organization Let's Play America when it was formed and serves as a model of what other communities do to promote play
How to get involved
Time:
Allow 6 months to plan with the Play Committee giving approx 2 hours per month to recruit the team, assign roles, secure permissions etc. A month out from your Play Day things ramp up so allow a couple of hours twice a week to keep things on track.
Links