Group raising funds for accessible playground at city park
All Abilities Play to host Holiday Family Fun Day Saturday
After struggling to find a park that is all-inclusive for her son, one Cape Coral resident has taken it upon herself to educate the community and raise funds so everyone has a place to go.
“When you get a community involved on something like this, it means a lot to so many people, not just about children with disabilities and not about adults with disabilities. It’s incorporating everybody together to have a place to come together to play, talk and socialize,” All Abilities Play project lead Nicole Buday said.
This Saturday, Dec. 14, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., All Abilities Play is hosting a free Holiday Family Fun Day at Jim Jeffers Park at 2817 S.W. 3rd Lane in Cape Coral There will be photos with Santa, arts and crafts and light refreshments and snacks.
Buday said All Abilities Play began in February when she finally said enough is enough and reached out to the city of Cape Coral Parks and Recreation Department. She reached out to see if there were any accessable playgrounds for her 10-year-old son, Owen, who has cerebral palsy.
That is the key word – accessible – and not ADA compliant. Buday said there is no equipment that is truly accessable to a person in a wheelchair or has a prosthetic.
“The city is following ADA rules. Mulch is considered ADA compliant,” she said, although a wheelchair or prosthetic in mulch is not an easy task. “There are so many memories made at the park. It’s not just about the disabled person – it’s others interacting with other disabled and showing compassion.”
To have accessable equipment for all takes quite a bit of money to accomplish, as the surfacing alone is more than half the cost of the playground.
“I get it,” she said of the expense. “I don’t know how the problem gets fixed.”
That is why five women rallied together and formed a committee to raise awareness and funds to eventually bring a playground to Cape Coral. Those women include Buday, Lindsey Harper, Rachelle Lee, Stephanie Listowski Wong and Kelly Slover.
“When you team up with a nonprofit, then we are the boots on the ground and we go out and educate the community of the lack of, need and show them the why,” Buday said. “We can apply for different grants. We can get businesses involved – volunteers donate their time and resources.”
The committee is made up of a physical therapist, occupational therapist, special education teacher and moms.
“When it comes time to picking out equipment and designing the playground, we will use expertise to design it,” Buday said, adding it will include all groups – the blind, hearing impaired, sensory kids. “We are not going to leave anyone out. We are going to think of every disability and how we can provide a space that is welcoming to every single person.”
She spoke about the all-inclusive playground that is being considered for the Jaycee Park improvement project. Unfortunately, Buday said there will only be two pieces of equipment for children in wheelchairs to play on.
The playground All Abilities Play is working on bringing to Cape Coral will include a swing that you can wheel a person in a wheelchair onto, as well as a place for another person to sit. The swing comes with a hefty price tag – up to $42,000.
“Things that are accessable are a lot of money,” Buday said. “That is just our life in general. To accommodate a special needs person is triple or quadruple the amount of money and that is with everything in my life. I get it. It is expensive. We need to come together as a community.”
The playground will also include communication signs, as not everybody is verbal.
“We want to have communication boards, brail boards and sign language boards. We want to think of all the things that people will need to go to a park and have fun and communicate,” she said. “Communication is huge. If you have a child that is nonverbal, they need to be able to tell that person where they want to go on the playground.”
Buday said although they do not have a timeline in mind because they need to raise the funds, there has been discussions about different locations, with one of those being Lake Meade. She said there will be enough room to do what they would like there, but most likely in a phased approach – adding on more as the funds continue to be raised.
“What we are wanting is not a small thing, or cheap,” Buday said.
The ideas the committee has thought of have been sent to playground designers to create a drawing as well as a cost associated with the desired equipment.
“Right now, we want to educate people on the need and get the word out and try to get as much community support as possible,” Buday said.
Buday said the nice thing is more and more places are picking up on the need of a truly accessable playground.
“I don’t think people realize how many disabled people there really are. In my son’s class alone, there are 11 kids in the classroom that are disabled. His school built an inclusive playground,” she said of Gulf Elementary School. “Their faces and smiles are my why. This is the first time any of them have been able to play on a playground. Everyone should have access to play.”
For more information, email allabilitiesplay@gmail.com, or visit evieadapts.com/play and Facebook.com/allabilitiescapecoral.