Texas mom advocates for accessible playground

From The Daily News in Galveston, Texas:

LEAGUE CITY, Texas — Doctors told her not to have too much hope for her 4-pound baby born with Down syndrome.

They said Christian Bennett would have a low IQ and that he would need “special attention,” his mother, Reneé Bennett-Farrow, said. Teachers tried to put her son in segregated classes, she said.

But when Bennett-Farrow looked at her son, she didn’t see Down syndrome. She saw a compassionate, curious, sometimes mischievous boy who was not getting the respect he deserved. So she vowed to change things.

“I wanted people ... to know him as Christian, not as a child with Down syndrome,” she said.She called the League City Parks Department and told its employees: “I want you to put my son on the cover of the parks directory.”

They did.

She got bolder. She said she pushed the parks department to initiate programs for people with disabilities but was told there was no money.

And then, one night, the idea struck her. As she was lying in bed, she heard a voice from God tell her to research playgrounds for people with disabilities, she said. At 4 a.m., she logged on to the Internet. There it was — the “Boundless Playground” (one is pictured) — a trademarked play area created by Amy Jaffe Barzach, whose son died from a terminal form of spinal muscular atrophy. The playground is modified to accommodate children with physical, developmental, cognitive and sensory disabilities.

There are only two such playgrounds in Texas, both in Dallas.The photos of children of all shapes and sizes playing together were exactly what Bennett-Farrow had been looking for, she said.

She took the idea straight to the head of the city’s parks department.

The parks department staff helped her pitch the idea to charitable organizations.

Then a city council member caught wind of the idea and, by January, council members gave the parks department the green light to develop the playground at League Park off Main Street.

A playground that could accommodate all children — including those in wheelchairs, those with autism and those with Down syndrome — would be a boon for a city home to more than 4,000 special needs children, said James Abbot, a League City pediatrician who treats Christian.

“A society is judged ultimately by how (people) care for their children and old people,” he said. “This (playground) is certainly one way we can assist in the development, growth and happiness of our children.”

When Bennett-Farrow talks about the need for a playground tailored for children with disabilities, she tells a story about one of her son’s classmates.

The story makes her sad every time she tells it, she said.

When Bennett-Farrow visited the school during recesses, she noticed a boy in a wheelchair sitting just outside the play area. The swings, slides and jungle gym couldn’t accommodate his wheelchair, so the boy sat quietly watching the other children play, she said.

Although Christian can play on the swings and the slide, the playground can still be a dangerous place for him. The 15-year-old is fearless and rarely acknowledges his limits, his mother said.

On a recent weekday, Bennett-Farrow turned around to find her son perched near the top of a 10-foot firefighters’ pole.

“Don’t do it, Christian,” his mother said sternly. “It’s dangerous.”“It’s fine — I can do it,” he retorted.

They quibbled, like mothers and teenage boys do, about the dangers of the drop.

“You’ll break your ankle,” Christian’s sister, Mandy Arvidson, tried to tell him. Unconvinced, Christian grasped the top of the pole, thrust his body forward and skidded down the pole. His mother sighed when his feet hit the ground.

That wouldn’t have happened in a playground with special equipment tailored to protect children like Christian who know no boundaries, she said.

Plans are under way to install the new playground in the center of town. Bennett-Farrow and a group of city staffers and other advocates for children with disabilities have formed a task force to find funding for the park.

Bennett-Farrow is brimming with ideas. She wants a play station with music and colors to intrigue children with autism, she said.

She wants ramps and bridges wide enough to accommodate two wheelchairs at once, she said.

And she wants to change the playground’s surface from gravel to a spongy material.

Christian, who has already flipped through stacks of playground equipment catalogs, has picked out what he said must be featured in the new playground. He wants swings — and lots of them — and slides that twist and bend, he said.

He summed up his thoughts to city council members in January when his mother handed him the microphone after she made her pitch.Christian is often unpredictable, his mother said, and she wasn’t sure exactly what he would say to council members.

He pulled the microphone close.

“I believe all children should be included on a playground,” he said. “Will you believe, too?”