The importance of one, the power of many.

At the vision of an inspired PTO president, and by the grace of God's helping hand, our little PTO has spent the last year raising $200,000 in donations, grants, and volunteer labor to build a special needs playground. I am at a loss for words to have witnessed how this small group of women has pulled the funds together and made this project a reality.
At the start of last school year our playground had a basic play structure and some swings. With the ever-growing student population it became the goal of the school's PTO to expand this playground. The original goal, to raise $30,000 for a new playground, was quickly pushed aside when attention was turned to a kindergartener named Carly. Carly has spina bifida and would stand on the blacktop every day at recess and watch the other children play. And so the goal was changed, as well as the price tag, to build a playground that would accommodate those with disabilities.
A year later, the playground now houses a basketball court and soccer goals, (both of which were Eagle Projects of 2 young boy scouts) as well as the special needs playground. The new playground includes special flooring, a handicap ramp, interactive panels, 8 slides (there were no slides on the old playground) an awesome glider, and handicap swings, (we call them "Gracie's swings" because we got them especially for Gracie).
This project has been so beautiful. It has taught the children to recognize, accept, and embrace their differences and the differences of others. The teachers have helped incorporate these principles into their lessons and the children seem to have taken the concept to heart and fully embraced it.
Last week we wrapped up the playground project. Many days of prep work were spent at the school doing last minute things: sorting T-shirts, preparing gifts, decorating the gym, etc. Between spending all day at school and doing the kids after school stuff, every last minute was filled up. It was a crazy week for me and by the end of it my family was in great need of a home cooked meal and a day off.
I could not imagine trying to shoulder the burden of this entire project as our PTO president, Kendra, and her right hand gals have done. They deserve every praise they have been given. I should mention that I am not one of those women. I am not the visionary that they are, nor do I have the skills to plan and pull off such a huge accomplishment. But I have been blessed by my role as a worker bee doing the nitty gritty job of just showing up to work hard and accomplish whatever needed done. It's the easy part of the project, but a very necessary one as I've come to learn this past week.
We had just 3 of us helping most days this week, trying to do the job of 10 people as quickly as possible. On Thursday, Kendra, Tisha, and I had the frustrating task of taping 400 paper plate people to the brick gym walls, and tape that refused to hold. We'd hang them up and half would fall back down within minutes. We had a wonderful group of children that tried to help but only made the situation worse. It was heartbreaking to see Kendra break down in tears, overwhelmed by her responsibilities and discouraged that no one answered her call for help (actually it was a desperate text). I was touched to watch as Tisha shooed Kendra out the door to handle the bigger issues that only she could handle, and assured her we would do the rest. Then, with the 2 of us left alone in the gym and making very little headway on the plate people, Tisha had the simple prompting that we needed to say a pray. How humbled I was by her faith, and so we stood in that empty gym and asked Heavenly Father for help. And help came. People showed up and we figured out how to get the tape to stick (mostly). Kendra worked out all the issues that had arose, and our mountains became molehills.
The next day the ribbon-cutting ceremony went off beautifully. Kendra had planned a kids-only program with the children running the show and no adults speaking. The kids did such a wonderful job! She gave speaking parts to a handful of children (the long-suffering children of the PTO moms) and had them perform the song they had learned for the ground-breaking, and also had the entire school perform a second song. She even had the children take on the task of calling the donors up to the stage so they could receive their gift. I thought it was such a special touch to have the children doing the program, it reminded the donors that the children are the reason behind this project and it is them that they have invested their money in.
As for our sweet Carly, her disability is no longer a factor. Instead of standing on the sidelines, she now plays right alongside the other children. She has been shown that she is important and that she is viewed as a person. And though her disability makes her different, it also makes her special. That is, to me, the biggest reward of all.
"The Friend" (a children's magazine published by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) has chosen to spotlight Carly in an upcoming issue of their magazine. They joined us for our ribbon cutting and took video of Carly on the playground and at her home. We can't wait to see her story in June, 2012!

*I keep putting off posting this blog b/c it doesn't have a picture of the playground, I will try to take one soon so I can include it.