In 1992, Van Wagner sponsored the renovation of a basketball court in one of New York City's schoolyards. From this initiative grew the Van Wagner Playground Program to replace basketball court backboards and nets in school playgrounds in New York, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Philadelphia and Washington, DC.

Today, we continue to maintain backboards. Our Playground Program has installed nearly 2,000 basketball backboards in urban playgrounds in seven major markets. For many years, this program has been supported in part by corporate sponsorships. Recently, at the request of New York City Marketing, we ceased accepting corporate sponsorships and now provide and maintain the program wholly as a supportive corporate citizen.