A new playground was unveiled Sunday in Aurora to help provide a safe environment for children with special needs.
The new playground, which cost at least $40,000, is at Gates Elementary School, 800 7th Ave.
Gates Principal Nitza Carrillo said about 25 special needs students will use the playground.
The recreation area now has several new items, including a fence and a walking bridge.
“We had fencing put in place as we have some runners here with our kindergarten and first graders and there is Phillips Park behind us as well as a lake, so our students will be safe (because of the fence),” Carrillo said. “We’re blessed to have this as well as for the opportunity we’ve been given.”
Gates Elementary teacher Debbie Anhalt of Plainfield, who teaches structural learning to special needs students, said the new facility “will benefit students’ physical and social needs.”
“This facility was designed for kids with autism as well as orthopedic disabilities and I was super thrilled the moment I learned we were going to have it,” Anhalt said. “It is so much better than what we used to have, which was a typical playground.”
The project was paid for by East Aurora School District 131, the Gates’ school parent-teacher organization, and through school fundraisers.
The project was spearhead by Benedictine University’s Aimee Ford, a Benedictine University student who has volunteered with the local Rebuilding Together Aurora organization that helps low-income families.
The playground project, was completed in less than a year, which Ford said felt longer at times.
“I felt this was something that was needed in the area and to me – it speaks volumes to see a space now where there can be joy and laughter for these students,” Ford said. “I felt this was something this community needed that would make a difference, and the fact that so many people were willing to act on it speak volumes.”
Ford said all the facility lacks now is special outdoor flooring, which will make the playground “totally (Americans With Disabilities Act) compliant.” The school, she said, will continue to raise funds to pay for the flooring.
Sunday’s event also included a giveaway of backpacks and school supplies to the Gates special needs students, courtesy of Jose Galvez, 28, who was representing his SAN Antonio Foundation in Aurora. The foundation has helped raise more than $70,000 to help children with disabilities or life-threatening diseases.
Galvez, who was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy at age 6, said he graduated from East Aurora High School and that it “felt great to give something to others with disabilities.”
“I never thought years ago when I was in high school that I might be doing something like this,” Galvez said about his efforts. “This feels pretty good.”
