Photo: anitrabutler | Pixabay
Under the guidance of their teachers, students at Glen Lake Elementary in Hopkins, Minnesota, raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to make their school playground wheelchair-accessible. The idea originated from Betsy Julien, one of the teachers at Glen Lake. Julien and a few of her colleagues received a grant that was short of the amount the school needed to make the school playground more accessible. Rather than giving up, Julien decided to rally her class to help her raise $300,000 to complete the project. The students reached their goal in a matter of weeks and have continued their fundraising efforts to give the playground a complete makeover that includes wheel-chair accessible zipline, swing, and merry-go-round. Any amount they raise above their new goal will be allocated to accessible equipment at other schools nearby. "As a teacher, and a parent, my heart just swells with pride," Julien says. "When you have a child who has special needs, you have so many hopes and dreams for their lives. You hope that the world is kind and accepting and inclusive for your child." Although it took a lot of hard work, the students found the project worthwhile. "If this never happened," sixth grader Hadley Mangan says, the students with disabilities "wouldn't enjoy recess as much, but I think they're going to be so happy because of our idea."
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