Thanks for caring about children with disabilities

Kudos to the Sunrise Rotary Club of West Sedgwick County and sponsoring businesses and donors for building the new wheelchair-friendly playground in Sedgwick County Park. The playground — the first of its kind in the state — is designed to be fun for all children and includes slides and swings accessible for children with disabilities. The project has been a long time in the works and still isn’t completed. Thanks, Sunrise, for persisting and for caring about these children.

12 Comments

  1. Political_mama
    Posted August 5, 2008 at 6:39 am | Permalink

    Now that is really cool. I didn’t even know you could create a playground for wheelchairs.

  2. bth
    Posted August 5, 2008 at 9:15 am | Permalink

    A salute to Rotary and all others who contributed.

  3. BlueJay
    Posted August 5, 2008 at 10:02 am | Permalink

    A very good thing done here. Good on them.

    Let’s have some more of that.

    Our public pools, they are not handicap accessible. At least not the ones I have been to.

    It would be a simple matter to address this. I am sure there would be volunteers to help.

  4. Mary_Caruso
    Posted August 5, 2008 at 10:27 am | Permalink

    It’s nice to hear some GOOD news for a change…kudos to the Sunrise Rotary Club!

  5. Mary_Caruso
    Posted August 5, 2008 at 11:07 am | Permalink

    Meanwhile, Medicaid cutbacks for those children who are disabled are forging ahead..oh well, at least they have a nice playground.

  6. Franklin
    Posted August 5, 2008 at 11:08 am | Permalink

    I have not taken the grand daughter there, yet.
    However, I must tell all of you something, from the heart:

    Wichita is not perfect, but in the area of support for disabled kids?

    You will have a hard time finding any city in the country that does more than Wichita. Also, much of that support is charitable or private.

    We have Rainbows United, Heartspring, Kansas Elks Training Center, Starkey Development, Sarah’s Hope and other organizations.

    In Wichita, we have national organizations like Knight’s of Columbus who never have to worry about where to send there “tootsie roll” money every year — we have so many local charities to choose from!

    We have a large number of attorneys who understand special needs in education, insurance, investment and trust matters.

    If you have a special needs child, or grandchild, and you live in Wichita, you know what I mean.

    If you are thinking about moving, it is difficult to find a community that stacks up!

    By the way, for any attorneys out there who are intrested in this field, I strongly recommend this group:

    http://www.specialneedsalliance.com/sna-help-professionals.aspx

    Not an attorney, myself, but I found myself trying to teach a couple of attorneys this stuff, until I found the right people to do it for us. It is not hard in Wichita.

    For parents and grandparents? Educate yourself and ask tough questions.

    The most difficult thing is to ponder what happens if the parents die, or family support, for whatever reason, is no longer possible.

  7. Franklin
    Posted August 5, 2008 at 11:11 am | Permalink

    Medicaid cutbacks?
    Mary, could you be more specific?

    I can tell you that our governor has NOT been kind to disabled kids. She is a Democrat, but programs for the disabled, statewide, got better treatment under Republicans Governors.

  8. Freebird1971
    Posted August 5, 2008 at 11:24 am | Permalink

    Don’t public places like a pool have to accessible to the handicapped per the ADA?

  9. Mary_Caruso
    Posted August 5, 2008 at 12:04 pm | Permalink

    Heatlhwave is tightening the requirements for assistance to all kids, disabled or not. We have a lot harder time now providing long term home health services to disabled children. Medicare and Medicaid are both making cutbacks and reducing reimbursements to healthcare providers.
    I’ll be the first to praise the efforts of orgainizations like Rainbows, Heartspring, etc. But state funded, long term care is getting harder to obtain.

  10. Phantom
    Posted August 5, 2008 at 4:06 pm | Permalink

    Good idea. Hope the kids enjoy it.

  11. avtolle
    Posted August 5, 2008 at 4:11 pm | Permalink

    I add my kudos to the Sunrise Rotary Club as well. Good work, folks.

    Franklin, while not directly related to this thread, your post above identifies why the Wichita district has so many Special Ed students with severe disabilities. I have heard from not only local but out of the area people involved in education that a recurring recommendation made to parents with such children is to move to Wichita, as it has available the needed services for such children.

  12. Regan Marquez
    Posted August 7, 2008 at 2:42 am | Permalink

    This is a fantastic blog post – I can’t wait for the next post.