Letter From 10 Year Old Ashley Morgan, Sister of Special Needs Child

We need S.N.A.P because some children have special needs. This doesn't mean they should not have the same priviliges as other kids. They can't help it that they are special. God made them special for a good reason.

Ashley Morgan

Comments From 6 Year Old Grace Drake

If we don’t help the special needs kids, they won’t be able to play on the playground. They would still have to sit and watch all the other kids play. I feel sad that they don’t get to play. They should get to play.

Question: Grace, what if someone said to you, “You can’t do anything to help, you’re just a kid!”- How would you answer them?

Response: I can help! You don’t know what I can do- and if you tried, you might be able to help, too-- but only if you believe in yourself.

Question: Who taught you to believe in yourself?

Response: I learned it at school. Like in PE -at first I couldn’t do any sit-ups, it was too hard. So I tried again and I learned how to do it. I kept trying every day and now I can do 27, and soon I’ll try to do 30.

Why I want to Help with SNAP
By: Sam Drake

Snap is a very good idea!!!!! Every kid should have a place to play like the Snap playground. Not only kids with special needs are to play on the playground but kids like me too .

Can you imagine not being able to play with all the other kids? Most parks have small pebbles or mulch on the ground and a wheelchair could not go over it.. Snap will have a rubberized ground. There are still some activities that disabled kids can’t do, like the slides or the stairs, but Snap has lots of other fun things for them to do, like wheelchair swings, tick tack toe boards and water sprinklers!

There are 1,700 kids that have special needs in Morgan County. There are many healthy kids not able to even meet a special needs child. Children like me don’t know how it feels to not be able to play with other kids because of a disability. With Snap all kids have a chance to become friends and learn from each other.

Snap needs us ” Barkley Bridger’s” to help too. We need to earn money to give to Snap to get this park built!!!!! The class that raises the most money could have a pizza and movie party from donations made by pizza places in Hartselle.

Why I want to Help with the SNAP Playground
(comments by Abbie Drake, Age 6)

I want to help all kids be able to play on playgrounds because the healthy kids get to play on the playgrounds and the ‘not healthy’ kids don’t, and that’s not fair.

It would be a happy feeling for a child in a wheelchair to swing for the very first time! Their smile would be so big! I would help push them in the swing.

The special needs kids are the same as me, but they have problems so they cannot do things that I can do. That makes them feel bad. When they feel bad, I feel ‘badder‘. I will help them raise money for kids in wheelchairs and on crutches. I will be their friend!

Question: Abbie this is a mighty big job to help with.

It’s going to take a very long time and be lots of hard work. Will you just give up if it’s too hard? We can do it if we ‘keep moving forward’ and keep trying to make the playground work- you don’t quit!

Why I want to Help with the SNAP Playground
By: Tarri Drake

What a joy it is to play with my kids at a playground! I love to take them on a pretty sunny day and hear their squeals and laughter. It is one of our favorite family activities and we go quite often. In the past week and a half, we have played at the park 4 times. It’s fun and it’s free!

I can’t imagine not being able to enjoy a park with my kids. How hard it must be for a mother of a handicapped child to maneuver a wheelchair over the small pebbles at most parks. I can remember when my twins were small and the difficulty I had going to places with rugged terrain. I got so tired out pushing their double stroller and getting that heavy thing in and out of the car, that by the time we returned home, I was exhausted. God bless the mothers who will always be faced with the difficulty and challenges of pushing their child in a wheelchair.

When I learned that over 1,700 kids in Morgan County are special needs, I was shocked. That’s almost 3 times the amount of students enrolled at Barkley Bridge. The families of those kids need our help. Our own children will also grow from experiencing friendships with these kids. Oh, the possible life lessons they could learn from simply playing together! I want my children to have the chance to reach out and touch them and to also ‘be touched’ in a very special way. I am willing to help make this dream a reality.