Innehållsförteckning för The Play Edition från The Goodnewspaper

While it doesn’t seem like most of us are willing to wait in a day-long Ticketmaster queue for a chance to see KidzBop in concert, today’s youth still deserve the chance to boogie. In Philadelphia, the annual Kidchella Music Festival is an opportunity for kids to do just that. Aligned with summer and back-to-school season every year in June, July, and August, the festival hosts a number of acclaimed children’s music artists, games, art stations, storytimes, food trucks, and good old-fashioned playground fun. It’s taken place since 2014, and families love any excuse to come together at the historic 125-year-old Smith Memorial Playground. “[This space] was always intended for a place for kids to play,” Frances Hoover, the executive director of the Smith Memorial Playground, told CBS Philadelphia. Located inside…

Although 40% of professional athletes are female, women’s sports only make up 4% of all sports media coverage, according to a Unesco study on gender equality. With this in mind, Jenny Nguyen knew that if she built a sports bar for women, they would come. “Our approach is to take that 4% that is showing and put it on blast,” Nguyen told The Guardian. Nguyen’s bar and restaurant, The Sports Bra, located in Portland, Oregon, is a safe, inviting place for women. The bar isn’t Barbie-pink and doesn’t have neon signs reading “slay girl, slay” (even though that would be fun and cute, too). Instead, it’s what Nguyen calls a “twist on the familiar,” designing it as a traditional family-friendly sports bar serving up draft beer, nachos, and burgers. The…

Think of a time from your childhood when you drew a picture, finger-painted a masterpiece, or made a macaroni necklace. We all start with an innate joy in saying “look what I made.” Along the way, however, some people’s creative contributions are lost to systemic barriers or discrimination. To nurture that “look what I made” sentiment, Creativity Explored (CE), a San Francisco-based art collective, was born in 1983. Founded by Florence and Elias Katz, an artist and a psychologist, CE gives developmentally disabled people access to creative expression. Now 40 years later, Creativity Explored has facilitated the careers of hundreds of disabled artists. They’ve seen their work exhibited in museums, galleries, and art fairs in over 14 countries — and have earned over $2 million from their art. A testament…

GOOD Are you an artist passionate about an issue or cause? Sell your work in exchange for donations, or contribute part of your earnings to a nonprofit near and dear to your heart. You can also organize an auction selling your work! BETTER Make a donation of your own to help more people access art and creativity. Consider supporting organizations like Creativity Explored (creativityexplored.org) or The Art of Elysium (theartofelysium.org). BEST Become a mentor or art instructor in your community. Perhaps you could volunteer at a community center, lead projects in an after-school program, or offer free support services one-on-one.…

GOOD Get curious about topics or hobbies that you maybe wouldn’t normally gravitate toward. Need some inspiration? Visit ggg.news/articles/list-of-hobbies and find something outside of your comfort zone. BETTER Stop into your local library to see if there is a community, class, or resource to explore your hobbies without investing too much out of your own pocket. For some ideas, visit: ggg.news/articles/unique-library-programs. BEST Start a club or online group to make friends with similar interests! Want to start a dog puppet show of your own? There are definitely people out there willing to make it happen. Even if it's scary, put yourself out there!…

“My shoes are Chacos, my skirt is Target, my bracelets are from camp, and my shirt is my dead father’s pajamas,” a smiling young woman says to the camera in an “OOTD” (or “outfit of the day”) TikTok video. She’s an attendee of Experience Camps, a nonprofit that transforms the lives of young people and the experiences they have surrounding grief and loss. Its annual summer camp provides children and teens whose parent, sibling, or primary caregiver has died with a free, one-week overnight camp focused on connection and play. Experience Camps also offers virtual grief support through games like Roblox and Minecraft, teaches emerging leaders to become camp counselors and mentors, and offers an adult version of camp in a Grief Retreat. Since its founding in 2009, Experience Camps…

GOOD Explore the magic of childhood and the power of play by listening to “Honoring Play,” a podcast by Kristen RB Peterson and Samual Broaden. Available wherever you listen to podcasts. kristenrbpeterson.com/podcasts BETTER Donate to organizations that help make play more accessible to children everywhere, like Out To Play (outtoplaytx.com), Playworks (playworks.org), or Eat, Learn, Play (eatlearnplay.org). BEST Get out and play! Whether you have children, nieces or nephews, or just unabashedly enjoy a playground in your area, exploring and engaging with the world with no agenda is a liberating experience for all.…

On weekends in Mississauga, a city in Ontario, Canada, a group of 32 men gather in empty parking lots to play cricket. Most of them hail from India and Pakistan, and since cricket is the most popular sport in South Asia, they all have a love of the game in common. “We have been playing throughout our life, so it’s something that is in our blood,” Syed Ali, the organizer of the weekly cricket games, told Global News. “We’re keeping our tradition alive. It feels like home.” After reconnecting with friends from his former school in Pakistan, who had also immigrated to Canada, Ali invited them to play. While professional cricket is played on stadium fields, everyday players have no issue grabbing a bat and a wicket to play in…

In December 2022, a code of ethics was enacted in Spain encouraging toy shops and manufacturers to avoid gender bias in the marketing of toys. These guidelines, agreed upon with the country’s Consumer Affairs Ministry, include rules that advertisements can no longer say if a toy is for a particular gender or assign specific colors to a gender. No more pink for girls or blue for boys — just play for all. The code of ethics was signed by the Spanish Association of Toy Manufacturers, which represents 90% of the industry in Spain. According to the Agence France-Presse (AFP), it is still limited in its scope and does not yet impact packaging, street advertising, or toy shop catalogs. There are also no sanctions for brands that do not comply, but…

MORE GOOD NEWS If you’re familiar with John and Hank Green, two author and philanthropist brothers who make weekly YouTube videos as the vlogbrothers, there’s a good chance you’ve also heard of their fanbase: The Nerdfighters (or Nerdfighteria). And what are those nerds fighting? All of the “world suck,” or the bad stuff happening around the world. To do this, they take their everyday hobbies and passions, like, say — Minecraft — and use it for good. Their communal Minecraft server, called Nerdcrafteria, is owned by Hank Green himself, and invites gamers to enter the virtual community to build worlds, take on challenges, and work together in a family-friendly gaming environment. “We focus on harnessing the powers of community and togetherness to create a welcoming and versatile environment where literally…

Located in Rochester, New York and named after Margaret Woodbury Strong, The Strong National Museum of Play is dedicated to the role of play in learning and human development. While most museums might boast classic paintings or artifacts, The Strong honors decades of play history, while facilitating newfound curiosity at the same time. Spanning more than 285,000 square feet, the museum started with Strong ’s own collection of dolls, objects, and hobbies that spread over 50 categories but all relate in some way to play — especially her nearly 30,000 dolls and toys. Now, the museum is home to the National Toy Hall of Fame, the World Video Game Hall of Fame, the Brian SuttonSmith Library and Archives of Play, and the American Journal of Play. The first of its…

The climate crisis is a tough, overwhelming challenge to confront. And it doesn’t help that the world’s most dedicated scientists working on climate and conservation solutions are often limited by access to data, funding, and partnerships. In comes Adventure Scientists, an organization that designs, builds, and executes projects with the help of outdoor enthusiasts. Adventure Scientists trains volunteer explorers to collect high-quality scientific data with non-traditional methods: exploring the great outdoors. Focusing on areas of impact like forests, biodiversity, climate, and freshwater, volunteers have supported initiatives to study the impact of microplastics in waterways, gather “cone crops” in reforestation efforts in national forests, and even collect scat samples to study antibiotic resistance in wildlife. Whether in kayaks, on foot, in trees, or any other means, adventurers combine their natural instinct…

GOOD Gather some friends and ask your local sports bar to turn on the women’s game. Better yet, see if they’ll host a regular schedule of women’s athletic events. Remind them: It’s good for business! BETTER Little League isn’t just for the littles! Join an intramural sports team near you, see what kind of pickup games are happening at your local community center, or just find a friend for a quick competition. BEST Okay, fine, maybe you want to keep Little League little. Instead of getting on the field yourself, can you become a coach? No matter the game, young, diverse athletes need mentorship and support! WHAT'S THIS? THIS IS THE GOOD BAR. We believe in celebrating good and then joining in to make a difference. The Good Bar is…

Boston personal trainer Jesse Setaro was a child of the foster care system, and after obtaining a degree in social work and starting his career as a trainer, he wants to give back. To do this, he’s using his gym, North End Fitness, to start a nonprofit called Project F. With over $50,000 in donations, he is creating a workout, training, and mentorship space for youth in foster care. “There’s no other gym in the country specifically meant for foster kids and orphans, despite there being 400,000 in the system as of today,” Setaro told CBS News. Not only will the gym be a safe place for foster kids to go — led by a licensed social worker — but it will also include a mentorship program and will provide…

Most of us will go to any length for our beloved pets -including sitting in a park to watch a puppet show. Lucky for all of the “my dog is my child” people out there, a group called Collective Summ, in collaboration with the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival’s Puppet Lab, created a puppet program especially for dogs and their families. The show, called “All is Blue & Yellow,” is a 25-minute puppet show designed around dogs’ visible light spectrum and written to maintain dogs’ attention. Yup, you guessed it: Everything is blue and yellow. The show tells the tale of a dog named Orbit who discovers the story of Laika, the Russian cosmonaut dog who went to space. Throughout the show, Orbit partners with various Chicago animals to train…

The soundtrack to the blockbuster “Barbie” movie had adults around the world singing along to Billie Eilish, asking, with yearning and grief, “When did it end, all the enjoyment?” Soleil Kohl, the brains behind Big Kid Kindergarten, poses a different question: What if it didn’t end? So she created an interactive play experience for grown-ups. Combining her experience as a certified early childhood educator and proponent of play-based living, she shares her best practices with adults in a traveling tour: Big Kid Kindergarten. “I’ve been a teacher in traditional and nontraditional education settings for seven years and hold a master’s degree in education. This project is a combination of my interest in play, connection, and adult friendships,” Kohl shares on her website. “After all, there’s plenty of great after-school clubs,…

HOW TO PLAY: First, start by filling in this list of words and phrases on the right side of the page. We have a key below if you need a reminder! When you’re done, transfer those words into the spaces in the short story below, and read aloud for maximum laughter. P.S. We know it’s hard, but try your best not to look below the second half of the page as you fill out the list, so you don’t spoil the results for yourself! KEY: verb: an action (run, ran, running) noun: a person, place, or thing (dog, library, Bob) adjective: a word that describes something (good, messy, sweet) adverb: describes an action and usually ends with -ly (quickly, kindly, excitedly) exclamation: Wow! Oh! Yuck! → STOP! COMPLETE THE RIGHT…