Orlando Magic Team Up With its Champions of the Community Partners to Build New Playground at Local Apartment Complex

The Orlando Magic joined its nine Champions of the Community Partners to build a new playground for local youth.

Magic Managing Director Ryan DeVos and Magic staff member David Kucinski join the Magic and its nine COTC partners along with KABOOM! and ONIC to build a new playground for local youth.

ORLANDO, FL, UNITED STATES, April 4, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The Orlando Magic spend a lot of time in the community fostering connections, strengthening social bonds, and providing a lift to others in need of some assistance. Ever since the late Rich DeVos bought the team in 1991, that’s been a core pillar of the organization. It’s woven into their fabric.

But as Helen Keller, the renowned author, activist and lecturer, once famously said, “alone, we can do so little; together, we can do so much.”

That quote accurately describes what we see on a regular basis here in Central Florida, with the Magic right in the middle of it. By teaming up with other philanthropic-minded organizations on community projects, they are able to make an even greater impact and expand on their vision.

A supersized example of this occurred Thursday, when the Magic, all nine of their Champions of the Community (COTC) partners, the Orlando Neighborhood Improvement Corporation (ONIC) and KABOOM! came together to help construct a new community and kid-designed playspace that will spark joy and a sense of belonging for kids at Boca Club Apartments.

“It’s really great for us to get our nine Champions of the Community partners out here and all work alongside each other,” Magic Managing Director Ryan DeVos said. "You’re truly seeing the fruits of your labor from an empty space to a playground that’s built in just a couple hours. It’s hugely rewarding and it will be exciting to see it live with kids playing on it in the near future.”

Those nine COTC partners are AdventHealth, City National Bank, Florida Blue, Gallagher, Kia, L3Harris Technologies, PepsiCo, ThreatLocker, and Walt Disney World. While it’s common for the Magic to be accompanied by at least one of those brands at their community events, them all being there at the same time made this truly a special occasion.

Although it was obviously a lot of hard work, what this project proved is that no job is too big or too daunting when there’s this much help. With so many volunteers from each of those organizations on site, they were able to excavate, move heavy materials, spread mulch, and assemble the playground components in several hours while bonding with one another.

“The more that we bond together, the bigger the impact we can make and the bigger the projects we can take on,” Disney Senior Vice President of Operations Katie Stretch said. “Disney has 80,000 employees, but the Orlando Magic have a significant number of employees as well. So, when we all come together, we can take on projects that are significantly bigger, which means we can have a bigger impact on the community.”
Although the previous playground in the apartment complex was beloved, it was largely unsafe due to age and environmental conditions, including uneven ground with exposed roots. Also, there are very few free and open playspaces nearby for the 133 kids that live in the complex.

So, when residents learned a new playspace would be built there, they were ecstatic and eager to help with the design. Even the kids got involved, as they shared drawings of their dream playspaces with project organizers. Many of those ideas were used.

The new playspace will provide a safe and accessible area for recreation, creativity, and connection that fosters community pride while enhancing the well-being of youth and their families. That is precisely the mission of KABOOM!, a national nonprofit that was founded 30 years ago with a vision that every kid in every community – no matter their background or where they live – would have the same opportunity to fully enjoy a childhood filled with places to play.

It means a lot to the Magic to share these experiences with others in the community. Not only do they want to be a resource provider, but they also want to participate in the activities and projects because it strengthens personal and professional bonds and is fun to be a part of.

“The organization has just been blessed in so many different ways to be able to be involved in this community,” said Cole DeVos, who’s part of the Magic’s managing development program. “To be able to give back to that with our time and effort is (great). There are obviously other ways we can do that, but there’s nothing like actually getting your hands dirty and doing the work yourself. We really enjoy that part of it.”

The Magic, through the Orlando Magic Youth Foundation (OMYF), have distributed over $31 million to Central Florida nonprofits over the past 36 years, impacting roughly 100,000 children annually. The foundation funds programs focused on education, arts, health, and homelessness. Just last month, they raised more than $2 million at their sixth-annual Orlando Wine Festival & Auction. That was the most money they ever raised at this event, which included live and e-auctions, as well as an outdoor festival, featuring live music, local and celebrity chefs, wineries, and food pavilions. The Magic's players, coaches and DeVos family members were all in attendance to help create awareness on the needs in the community and the work the OMYF does each year.

No matter whether it’s a fundraising event, a basketball clinic, or something like what they did Thursday helping build a playground, the Magic just want to be as active as possible in the community so that kids can grow up with the resources they need to reach their full potential.

“I think it starts with the DeVos family. They like to call themselves stewards of the community and they love to give back,” Magic President of Business Operations Charlie Freeman said. “We love to do that here at the Magic. To be able to see everybody come together (on Thursday) and do this type of hard work is fun. We are so excited to see the smiles on the kids’ faces that are peaking out and looking over (from their windows) and hopefully they will be able to use it for many years to come.”

Trish Wingerson
Orlando Magic
+1 4075380892
twingerson@orlandomagic.com

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