Let’s Play America was founded in January 2015 by Pat Rumbaugh (“The Play Lady”) and Daniel Nakamura to encourage people of all ages to give themselves time to play daily. It all began in March 2009 when Pat formed a play committee in Takoma Park, Maryland that, in late 2010, became TakomaPlays!. This organization consisted of people who wanted to promote play in their community. The group of play advocates met regularly and began to plan free play events. They also applied to the nonprofit KaBOOM and succeeded in having Takoma Park designated as a Playful City USA in 2009. Takoma Park was named a Playful City every year, until the program ended in 2017. Pat’s work with TakomaPlays! led her to believe that communities all over America would benefit from developing similar organizations. She and Daniel decided to co-found Let’s Play America to bring this vision to communities throughout the country (and possibly even the world!). TakomaPlays! became part of the larger organization Let's Play America and serves as a model of what other communities could do to promote play. Consolidating nearly 20 years of play event experience, Let's Play America has created a Play Day Handbook, a digital resource for planning, organizing, and implementing a play day in any community. Next, we will offer a Virtual Play Day Handbook based on our experience hosting virtual play days during the pandemic. Let's Play America believes everyone deserves to play! To learn more about bringing free community play into your community, please get in touch.