Community Foundation provides adaptive playground for special needs children at Gateway Education Center

It’s a Guilford County School, but Gateway serves students with special needs, and now those students have their own special playground thanks to help from a community foundation.

“It’s amazing for them,” said Gateway Principal Sara Jones. “When I first saw it, I thought, ‘okay, this is a great space. We’ll see how the kids react,’ and it was amazing what they did when they got out there – the smiles, the access that they had. Gateway’s been here for many, many years, and we really have not had something as special as this playground.”

A playground designed and adapted for children with special needs. Jones said everything is lower and wheelchair accessible to be within reach for students who can’t step up or climb. It has features that spin or rock to provide not only physical movement but a sensory experience, and the children at Gateway love it.

“We take them out there, and they light up, and they start engaging,” said Jones. “They reach for things. They wheel their wheelchairs. It’s used a lot for learning mobility for our students. So, they get out there. You know they might not go in the hallways very easily, but get them out there, and they’re wheeling themselves, and just the laughter and the communication that we get out of them. You know that reciprocal play. It’s just been amazing.”

Getting the adaptive playground wasn’t easy or cheap. It took a decade for the school and community groups to join forces and raise the needed funds.

“We got a fairly large donation from a community member to start off the project,” said Jones. “It’s just been years of fundraising, working with the community foundation to collect our funds and put them in a place where people can donate, and then we would be able to access that money, but it has been a 10-year process.”

The playground finally became a reality  — made possible through a charitable fund of the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro. Principal Jones said it’s important not only for Gateway students, but for all students with different abilities.

“We are all about inclusion,” she said. “You know, the goal for us is to get students as close to their typical peers as possible. For our students at Gateway, due to their needs, this is the right place for them, but there are many kids in our typical schools that may access their education, and they’re in a wheelchair, or they have sensory needs, and it’s important that they also, even if they’re at a typical school, have the ability to access a playground. So, it’s always important to have those spaces because our students are everywhere.”

If you would like more information about Gateway Education Center, visit gatewayec.gcsnc.com