Some Canisius High School juniors are working to raise money to help build a playground for special needs students. WBFO's Focus on Education Reporter says the high school teens want to contribute students at the Heritage Center's Maryvale School in Cheektowaga can enjoy some recreation.
"Well they're an extraordinary of young gentlemen. They've been volunteering at the school and the kids love to have them come in and engage with them,” said Beth Simons, Chief Operating Officer for Heritage Centers Foundation. She was describing some of the service work conducted by Canisius juniors.
For several days students travel to a social service or faith based agencies to volunteer their time. Student Matthew Taboni noticed the Heritage special needs students enjoyed being outside, but needed a better play area.
“And while we were there, we noticed there wasn’t a lot of areas for the kids to play and that when we were playing with them, they had so much excitement and joy on their faces, just being outside,” explained Taboni.
Taboni and classmate Timothy Armstrong initially wanted to help build a playground.
“So me and Tim are calling playground companies and tree companies,” said Taboni.
“We really just wanted to help out and seeing all those kids, they were just so happy and we just wanted to make a difference. We wanted them to go outside,” Armstrong said.
Then the teens decided to approach Simons, learning Heritage is already working to build an adaptive playground, but need financial help.
“We’ve got a big playground project. We are going to breaking ground early summer,” said Simons.
Taboni and Armstrong decided create a fundraiser. They gathered a committee of other students to assist. They will host an April 8th Gala at Heritage Maryvale School.
“Kind of both came up with it at the exact same time,” noted Armstrong. “We were trying to do it on our own at first, then we decided okay this is a lot of work, we’re probably going to need help.”
Nick Taboni is Matthew's brother. “The joy in the kids’ faces, just means so much. You never know how much a smile will change someone’s day,” said Taboni. “
Taboni attended a separate service time at Heritage and was also drawn-in by the spirited personalities of the children. “There’s so much joy in their face and we were just walking, the little five minute walk we had, it brought joy to me and when I heard he was getting involved, I just had to help,” explained Taboni.
The Heritage Centers serves about 3,000 individuals with a 'broad range of developmental disabilities'.
“The Maryvale School has 160 children whose disabilities are profound enough that their home school district can’t care for them. So we are drawing actually from five different counties, 34-different school districts are sending children to our program.
Building an adaptive playground will meet special the needs of the children, but price tag is about $300,000 and that's without the landscaping. Simons explained Heritage wants to build a playground that will include sensory gardens and an eco-friendly.
“And because these children have so many physical and cognitive challenges, you can’t go to your typical neighborhood playground and play, so every piece of equipment that we have selected has a therapeutic purpose to them,’ said Simons. “Sensations with children with special needs, particularly children in wheelchairs don’t necessarily get.”
As the Canisius students spent time with the Heritage children, they learned that the simplicity of playing was making them happy.
“It was really fun just getting to know the kids,” said Chris Anstett. He was part of the original student service week volunteering at Heritage where he experience the unexpected.
“I expected it to be kind of more heartbreaking in ways, but seeing the kids kind of made me feel happy inside and I wanted to just back,” said Anstett.
Next month's gala is a chance for students to try and raise about five-thousand dollars to contribute toward playground construction.
Students Patrick Eugeni and Nate Troutman became involved in the project and jumped in to help.
“They deserve it more than anybody. They have so much going on in their lives, but they’re so appreciative for what little they have. Eugeni replied. “I think it would be a great opportunity for them to be able to go outside.”
“Once I heard about what they were trying to do I just felt I had to get involved,” responded Troutman. “Just seeing what difficulties they went through and just how they had difficulties even trying to enjoy being outside – that some things we take for granted a lot and I felt like that had to chance, something had to be done.”
Students tell WBFO News theirJesuit education encourages them to be part of social justice and use their talents to give back to the community and the world.
“We met this one little kid, who just the light in his eyes when he was outside would just light up and we said we need to do something,” stated Armstrong.
