When will Lockwood STEAM Academy’s beautiful new playground be finished? 10-year-old Ermias Afeworki has asked this question to staff members every day since classes started early last month.
“This is going to be the best playground ever!” Ermias exclaimed, as he skipped across campus a week or two ago.
It’s something Ermias can thank the star of the Golden State Warriors, Stephen Curry, and his chef wife, Ayesha Curry.
The Currys will provide an additional $50 million to the Oakland Unified School District commitment to the Eat.Learn.Play. Foundation and its benefactors. This includes installing two new basketball courts and mini soccer fields, a nature jdiscovery area with logs and stumps for climbing and leaping, and a new outdoor play area for kindergarteners and older students at Lockwood.
Ermias, whose regular questions are directed to Principal Nehseem Ratchford and other teachers, expressed his affection for the place by saying, “I love it because I can play with my friends every day here.”
In addition, Ermias’ entire family might gain to benefit from this project. His brother attends Lockwood, where 658 students were enrolled as of late last week. Out of these students, 65% are Hispanic, over 25% are Black, and there is also a burgeoning Arabic community. Ermias lives across the street from the school and is one of four children. The Currys wish to raise these kids to be capable of doing great things.
Ayesha Curry stated, “I believe it develops mostly from our parenthood. Once you have a child, you begin to realize that it’s not your fault; it’s just how things are, and you begin to hear about the disparities that other families and parents are facing around you.”
More than 25 million meals were supplied to families in need during the pandemic, and the Currys intend to build on the effect they achieved during the first four years of their foundation work, which started in 2019.
In terms of how we can maintain this positive effect, Stephen Curry explained that the foundation’s work has sparked a lot of momentum.
A covered outdoor classroom will also be unveiled by Lockwood shortly. Refurbished play spaces are being provided to six Oakland community locations and schools this year. Increased possibilities and growth in middle school athletics will be facilitated by an additional $1 million donation, particularly for female students.
Together with new sports facilities and playgrounds, the enlarged movement hopes to improve Oakland’s cafeterias to serve over six million meals to students each year, provide tutoring services to all kids who read below their current grade level, and give away 300,000 books by organizing book fairs at elementary schools and restocking school libraries.
After the end of the 2026 school year, Eat.Learn.Play. plans to renovate 25 additional play areas.
“Of course, that’s why we started, but you might have enormous dreams. Stemming from the platform’s benefits, both of us have had these aspirations and they have been granted thanks to this concept,” explained Stephen Curry.
“And then, at that precise moment, Eat.Learn.Play. offers specificity and clarity in terms of how we want to increase our impact and create a plan,” the speaker said.
Aneel Bhusri is a leading partner of the Currys as well as the co-founder and co-CEO of Workday. He has referred to the couple as “one in a generation.”
“For starters, individuals such as Steph and Ayesha frequently wait until they are retired to make a difference, and when they do, it’s when they’re at the height of their influence and quality of life,” Bhusri stated. In other words, for a couple to do all that the Currys have done is simply a rare phenomenon.
