In just six hours, 200 volunteers planted 12 trees, constructed six picnic tables, six benches and built an on-campus sensory playground for Little City’s 50 autistic residents. Palatine’s Little City Foundation in partnership with Discover and KaBOOM! came together Sept. 24 to construct a playground with design elements previously chosen by the children with autism and their families.
“KaBOOM! workers are the real architects,” Shawn E. Jeffers, executive director of Little City said. “They went to the people who are going to use (the playground).”
KaBOOM! is a non-profit organization that builds playgrounds nation-wide through community participation, with a goal of creating a place to play for every child in America.
Eighty percent of Little City’s children have autism of varying abilities, some drew pictures of what they wanted their dream playground to look like while others pointed and smiled, Jeffers said.
Heather Figlioli of Park Ridge, who’s 8-year-old autistic son has been a Little City resident for nearly a year, said she was overwhelmed by the amount of support shown by the community.
“Just to have a playground to congregate with my child and his siblings – it’s therapeutic,” Figlioli said. “It’s everything the families need and more.”
Discover’s Discover Cares Month initiative, dedicated to volunteers serving their communities during the month of September, has led to the construction of 16 playgrounds in the last 14 years. Discover provided a majority of the funding and volunteers for the Little City playground, Kara Hoffman, KaBOOM! project manager said.
“We’ve been raising money for years and to have Discover step up to the plate and say, ‘we’re going to give (a playground) to you’ is so generous,” Figlioli said.
The playground serves as the beginning of a community designated for autistic children.
“We’re going to launch a children’s village in the spring,” Little City Communication Manager Rick Johnson said. “(The playground) is the first part of that.”
Once the playground was completed, volunteers from AT&T of Hoffman Estates, Discover, KaBOOM! and the Little City Foundation gathered for a ceremonial ribbon cutting alongside the autistic children who now have a place to play of their own.
“We’re making an investment in the lives of kids with disabilities one step at a time,” Jeffers said.
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