Ten years later, Sarah Martinez-Helfman can't believe how the vision has grown into reality. Days like the one Eagles Youth Partnership had on Thursday are celebrated with cameras and reporters and stories of giving -- the entire Eagles organization spent the day in West Philadelphia revitalizing an elementary school, a neighborhood and a generation of children.

But the reality is that the 10th Annual Playground Build was a microcosm of what happens every day with the program Martinez-Helfman oversees, the one that is out on the streets every day of the year making a difference.

The cameras aren't there on those days, but the work is every bit as significant.

"It's amazing that when we go into low-income neighborhoods in the city, the ones we're serving with the Eye Mobile that has been out there every school day for 10 years, with a Bookmobile that reaches 40,000 kids a year ... the kids know who we are. The teachers, the parents, people on the streets -- they all wave to us and say hello.

"We've become a friend to the neighborhoods and those are the same people who are cheering on the Eagles every week. It feels really good to be woven into the fabric. We don't just show up on one day. We're there every day, year in and year out."

Sarah Martinez-Helfman (center) with Jen DiGiovacchino and Cathy Peduzzi

And that's really the key point. Every day, year in and year out. For 10 years Eagles Youth Partnership has been pounding the pavement to make the world a better place for kids.

On Thursday, the organization went to Heston Elementary School at 54th and Lansdowne in West Philadelphia. Overbrook High School, the home of Wilt Chamberlain, is just up the way. The playground at Heston is the one used in the opening of the hit television show, "The Prince of Bel-Air."

It's a neighborhood that once was beautiful, and indeed there are reminders in the nearby architecture. But in the last few decades, the drug scene has run rampant. Guns are all over the streets, a couple of police officers told me.

Kids are in danger.

"They need something to do," said Julio Sota, a nearby resident.

And so that's what the Eagles provided on Thursday. Something to do. A playground to call home. Trees and flowers and murals to dress up a dreary exterior of the building. Fresh pain and designs inside to provide some cheer for the kids. A fantastic mural in the room that houses the auditorium and the cafeteria.

"This is amazing," said Andrew, a fifth-grader at the school who walked up to the mosaic wall and proclaimed, "I'm ready to work. I'm an artist."

So he spent the next hour pasting tile to the wall, chatting with Winston Justice, showing a series of drawings he brought along to anyone who wanted to take a look.

It was a day to make a difference, and yet every day is like that for Eagles Youth Partnership and its group of tireless workers -- Martinez-Helfman, Jennifer Stredler, Mark Singer, Amy Tessier, Jhona Ireland, Sally Rogers and many volunteers and interns and people who really, really, really care.

"What we know is that the playgrounds we've built at schools, from the feeback we've received from Principals at those schools, is that there has been a decrease in violence, and that is so satisfying," said Martinez-Helfman. "When the kids have nothing to do during lunch and at recess, they get into fights and then they bring those fights into the classroom.

"What we've been told is that now that the kids are engaged and that they are happy, there are many fewer fights."

For the past 10 years, the EYP Playground Build projects have been a labor of love for Jeffrey and Christina Lurie

Isn't that what this is all about? More love. Less anger. Football is football and when it comes right down to it the game is a game. It's entertainment. It's fun It's a relief for fans from the hum-drum of the world's troubles.

"If you go to a community that is disadvantaged and there is no safe place for children to play," said Eagles Chairman/CEO Jeffrey Lurie, "it's such an energy-zapper. To be able to finally have a place that is safe and to think and to play with other kids, it's exciting.

"Whatever we can do to help, we try to do as an organization. That is our message every day with Eagles Youth Partnership."

Ten years ago Eagles Youth Partnership began the playground build program and provided a playground, one play structure. The organization beamed, and then decided it wasn't going to be enough.

In the years since then, well, there is no comparison. The Eagles come armed with hope, and that is the most powerful message to bring.

"We never imagined 10 years ago the scope and scale of what we've grown into with all of our programs," said Martinez-Helfman, adding in the success of the annual Chess Tournament and the Top Achievers program. "It's really been spectacular. One of the things I love about the Playground Build day is that we're doing more than painting and tile work and planting and building play structures, we're instilling hope in kids and we're instilling pride in neighborhoods.

"We're saving kids' lives. We lose 10,000 children every year to trauma and violence -- accidents. The most kids die in Philadelphia because they are on the streets and they get hit by cars. We're creating a safe place space for them here.

"I look around at the faces of all these children and I wonder: Which one of these kids are we saving today?"