Youngsters have a new place to play in Elmwood Township.

A nautically themed playground, part of the revamped Greilickville Harbor Park, was dedicated Saturday with the help of Traverse City native and host of HGTV’s “Carter Can,” Carter Oosterhouse.

Families celebrated the opening of the new play area with a picnic lunch, face painting, balloon twisting demonstrations and posing for pictures with Oosterhouse while sand sculptor Ray Villafane created a massive aquatic scene on the beach.

Oosterhouse’s nonprofit foundation, Carter’s Kids, was instrumental in building the new playground, replacing the former play area where Oosterhouse says he played as a kid.

“I loved playing here when we were little kids. Coming back for this project has been a fantastic opportunity for me to give back to Traverse,” said Oosterhouse, whose group travels around the country building playgrounds, mostly in low income areas, to help keep kids active while fighting childhood obesity.

“Once we found out about this project, it all came together very quickly,” said Oosterhouse, noting that donations from the Ken and Faye Shaw family and the Art and Mary Schmuckal Foundation made the playground a reality.”

On October 24th, 2008, Carter’s Kids visited the Kids of Excellence Child Care Center in New Orleans, Louisiana.

With contributions from Nautica Fragrances, we were able to help rebuild the day-care center’s playground; we also donated toys to the children at the school. This was our first venture in Louisiana, and everyone had a great time.

The center was established in 1999 and destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. It re opened with the assistance of United Way, Louisiana Quality Star Program and State of Florida re building grants.

It serves low-income kids (ages 0-10) in the community. The center provides childcare during the day and an after school tutorial program. It’s run by Kristie Givens.

Carter’s Kids traveled to Philadelphia, in June to build a playground with the Jon Bon Jovi Foundation, Lowe’s, and Rebuilding Together.

As part of the collaborative effort to create a healthy neighborhood by way of a makeover for Overbrook Environmental Education Center, and as part of the “Building a Healthy Neighborhood” event, the expansive Carter’s Kids playground constructed there will be a place where kids can play, move and stay active for several years to come.

Special thanks to Lowe’s for their generous sponsorship and for their hard-working volunteers!

In July of 2011, Carter’s Kids built a playground in San Fernando, CA at the Nueva Esperanza Charter Academy. With sponsorship provide by the Lowe’s Foundation, Carter’s Kids joined Rebuilding Together and the Environmental Media Association on this community project.

Rebuilding Together provided home renovations for 3 homes in San Fernando, the EMA built a garden for the students of the school to use and Carter’s Kids built a playground that featured many fitness oriented equipment stations.

We also had many special celebrity supporters of the event, including Amy Smart, Ali Larter, Beau Garrett and Hayes MacArthur.

September of 2011 brought Carter’s Kids to the Progress Village area of Tampa, Florida. Earlier in the year, Progress Village had sustained extensive storm damage to the area. Carter’s Kids was fortunate to join Rebuilding Together in helping to revitalize this community.

Sponsored by Lowe’s, Rebuilding Together renovated 5 homes in the area and Carter’s Kids built a specially designed playground for the Progress Village area children. This particular neighborhood had a school, a daycare and an entire local community neighborhood to share this beautiful new play space.

Once again, with the help of the county, the local Rebuilding Together affiliate and another fantastic crew of volunteer workers from Lowe’s, Carter’s Kids was very happy to bring a great new play space for the Progress Village community.

Last weekend, HGTV host Carter Oosterhouse stood in a Dallas gymnasium and got to announce the arrival of superstar Miami Heat guard Dwyane Wade.

While not one of their hometown players, Wade was in town for the NBA’s All-Star weekend, and the duo received cheers not only for their on-camera talents, but for the time they were committing to the Turnkey Boys & Girls Club of southern Dallas.

Oosterhouse’s nonprofit organization Carter’s Kids works to promote fitness and self-esteem to young people.

With much of the nation’s focus on the childhood obesity epidemic, America’s Boys & Girls Clubs need added attention to encourage healthy, active lifestyles.

“The Boys & Girls Clubs do wonderful things,” Oosterhouse said. “[The Turnkey Boys & Girls Club] is the oldest in Dallas. It had seen better days.”

Carter’s Kids, along with the Wade’s World Foundation — Dwyane Wade’s nonprofit entity — completely refurbished the club, built a new playground, repainted the gym walls and added new lights, in what they called The Big Assist.

“The reaction was amazing,” Oosterhouse said. “That’s why I started Carter’s Kids. When you get that natural response that only kids can give, it’s so worthwhile. They were so excited to see [Dwyane Wade]. They felt it was really cool that people were reaching out and supporting them.”

The Wade’s World Foundation supports education and health for at-risk children through local programs. Wade has said his goal is to leave the world better than he found it, based on his mother’s encouragement that life is bigger than basketball.

Oosterhouse agrees that community-based involvement is where to start.

“I definitely think you have to be local first,” he said. “Whatever you can do, whether it’s your local school or a local Boys & Girls Club. There’s the front line of trying to attack this problem and curb childhood obesity.”

Carter’s Kids traveled to Indiana, Pennsylvania in August of 2011 to build a very unique play area. The playground was built for an Indiana County Headstart Program that has children ages 2 to 5 that attend the program.

They worked very closely with the Carter’s Kids designers to build a play space that was as natural as possible in looks and in feel. We incorporated custom designed fiberglass tree stumps, fallen logs, sand play areas, mud play areas and tree climber vines to the custom play space.

Another very unique feature of the play space was we created an oval track for the children to ride their tricycles and big wheels! The final feature of the play space was a large covered pergola that provides a perfect area for drama, art and music classes.

More than 250 volunteers from Rebuilding Together and National Sponsors: Lowe’s, Cricket Wireless, CBRE, Carter Oosterhouse’s Carter’s Kids, HUD, Wells Fargo, Encana, Denver Office of Strategic Partnerships, HGTV, DIY Network, and Kmart, will revitalize the Barnum community.

Volunteers will perform critical improvements to more than 30 homes, distribute educational resources, and focus on comprehensive health advancements. The workscope includes: major home rehabilitations, basic improvements, accessibility modifications, energy efficient upgrades, and community landscaping.

“I am honored to welcome so many volunteers to work with HUD and Rebuilding Together as we launch the national Healthy Homes conference in Denver,” said Rick Garcia, HUD’s Region Administrator for the Rocky Mountain Region. “We are not only putting our policies into action, but our partnership with Rebuilding Together is transforming the Barnum neighborhood into a more healthy, environmentally safer and sustainable community.”

In addition to the home and neighborhood projects, volunteers will also complete a new playground at Lakewood and Gulch Park, today, Friday, June 17. Carter Oosterhouse, celebrity carpenter and host of Carter Can, in association with his foundation Carter’s Kids, and the Lowe’s Charitable and Educational Foundation will build the new playground, which promotes a healthy and active lifestyle for local youth.

Carter’s Kids kicked off 2012 with a great new playground at the John G. Dupuis Elementary School in Miami, Florida. This play space was another playground build sponsored by the Lowe’s Foundation and in partnership with Rebuilding Together.

The elementary school badly needed new playground equipment and Carter’s Kids was happy to be able to provide a beautiful new play space for over 400 students.

Once again, we were very fortunate to have the help of the amazing Lowe’s volunteer team made up of South Florida Lowe’s store employees.

At the ribbon cutting ceremony to dedicate the opening of the playground, John G. Dupuis Elementary School principal Claudine Winsor presented Carter Oosterhouse and Amy Smart awards for bringing the playground to their school.

Frankfort Michigan has a brand new, very large and fun playground thanks to Carter’s Kids and a local fifth grader Helen Erginkara who spearheaded the initiative by getting her community to raise the necessary funds to build a playground in her hometown.

Carter’s Kids came to Northern Michigan to construct the playground and helped with the design. Helen and her friends were instrumental in the design process.

The waterside park now has something for every child to enjoy and to have a place where being active and playing collides.

The structure is complimentary to the city of Frankfort in that, the design is nautical (appropriately dubbed the “SS City of Frankfort”) and blends nicely with the backdrop of the water.