Niles Paul joined Rebuilding Together to unveil a new playground for the Imagine Hope Community Charter School in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, April 9, 2015.*

Niles Paul grew up playing on his neighborhood playground, his favorite element being the monkey bars.

On Thursday, the tight end joined Rebuilding Together to unveil a brand new playground for one area school and the community surrounding it.

"I got to hammer in some humongous nails with a sledgehammer," he said afterward. "I got to visit some kids, read to some kids, show some kids some jump rope tricks, meet some of the volunteers. It was just an all-around amazing experience."

Upon driving the final foot-long nail into the ground to complete the playground, Paul then headed inside the school to visit several of the classes. At each stop, there was a new activity to take part in.

At his first stop, he sat down to read some stories to the young children, and then afterward discuss the morals, values and lessons learned in those books. Next, he blew off some steam in gym class, jumping rope and having a good time with the students.

After spending time with the kids, Paul was then taken to the local community center, where he then got to thank the volunteers that helped to repair the homes and build the playground. He stopped to take pictures, chat and sign autographs.

"In the bigger picture of things, me being out here was so little compared to what all the volunteers and all the time they put in," he said. "But, you can definitely see it was kind of like a present to them to see a Redskins player out there."

A regular participant in community outreach events, Paul takes pride in his charitable work and enjoys helping out in any way that he can.

"They were all very excited to meet me and wanted to take pictures and stuff," he said. "It just made me feel like I had put in my little input for this project."

Before his visit was over, the school's choir sang a couple of tunes to celebrate the new playground, and Paul himself got to take part in the ceremonial ribbon cutting.

Rebuilding Together, a national housing non-profit that renovates homes for low-income homeowners, took over Northeast Washington, D.C., to construct a playground for the Imagine Hope Community Charter School while also teaming up with Lowes for their "Rebuild-A-Block" program.

"We also provide additional community spaces, as well, such as the school here today and the playground outside," said Amy Seusing of Rebuilding Together. "We mobilize about 100,000 volunteers a year and do about 10,000 projects."

Along with the playground, three-to-four homes in the surrounding area received various upgrades from minor repairs to major projects to improve the safety of the structure.

With April being National Rebuilding Month and the month in which the program was founded 30 years ago, it's a busy time of year for the organization. Throughout April, they'll complete 3,000 projects.

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