More than 250 volunteers from Home Depot and KaBOOM!, a nonprofit organization that builds "playspaces" across the nation, showed up at Zapata Park today to assemble a new playground designed by children and refurbish the park.

The playground, located in Alkali Flat on 905 E St., was the 1,764th playground constructed by the two companies and was built for children ages 2-12. Workers also filled the playground with brand-new sawdust, painted hopscotch squares, repainted a picnic area and repainted the lines of the basketball court. The Sacramento Tree Foundation also came out and planted some trees.

Kenny Altenburg, a project manager at KaBOOM! said that the project has been in the works for more than two months.

"To me it's like the most important thing we can have," he said about having an organization like KaBOOM! in the community. "The kinds of bonds you can form with that, the kind of work that you can get done and the impact that you can have on these kids lives, I think it's unmeasurable."

Larry Snyder, a Home Depot store manager in Folsom, said his employer donated $65,000 to the playground and that a project like this is done at least three time a year.

"There will be a nice, safe place for kids to come out and play," Snyder said. "We also built some planter boxes and some benches just to make the area a little more enjoyable for the kids."

Altenburg said he loves to see kids play on the playgrounds he helped build.

"It never gets old to me," he said. "These kids had a dilapidated playground here that was half the size two months ago, and what we did over the past couple of months is work on getting that structure out, expanding the site (to where it's) twice as big and putting a new state-of-the-art playground that they actually helped design themselves."

Altenburg also said he likes the fact that more than 100 employees from Home Depot came on their day off, but having the community show up was even more important.

"For the residents to come out, that's what means the most," he said. "When they come out and help build something like this, they really take ownership in it, and it really builds up the community bonds that are there waiting to be built."

Sacramento City Councilman Ray Tretheway paid a couple of visits to the newly refurbished park, but he was not present at the "board-cutting" ceremony. The playground will be sealed off for the next three days for the cement in the foundation to dry, but the children who helped design the park will be ready when it opens. The two swings at the park are still available.

Watch video of the board-cutting ceremony on TwitVid for more information on who helped with the project.

Read Agnus-Dei Farrant's coverage of the event.