How to go
What: Third annual Lawnview 5K
When: 8:30 a.m. Aug. 15
Where: Melvin Miller Park, 731 Childrens Home Road, Urbana
Cost: Registration is $20 with a T-shirt, or $15 without a shirt. Teams of five or more can pay $15, or $10 without a T-shirt.
Information: Contact Angie Whip at (937) 964-8677 or angierkw @yahoo.com
Thaddeus Sapp is wheelchair bound, but when he’s on the playground at the Lawnview Child and Family Center, he wants to be able to play just like any other kid.
Parents and staff at Lawnview are working hard to make sure that happens. They’re hosting a 5K run in on Aug. 15, and the proceeds will go toward the second phase of a project to install handicap accessible equipment at the school’s playground.
When the first phase was completed last year, a gazebo with a ramp and slides were installed to allow children with disabilities to enjoy the playground. A second phase would add more equipment, said Angie Whip, a speech pathologist at Lawnview, which provides an early intervention program and a special needs preschool.
The 5K will be the second event recently to raise money for the project, Whip said. In July, a golf scramble raised $2,000.
While the project is still in its early stages, it has already provided benefits, even to students who do not have disabilities.
“It’s kind of a way that our typical kids can interact with the kids that are handicapped,” Whip said.
For parents like Sarah Sapp, Taddeus’ mother, the playground has allowed her son to spend more time playing with other children at school.
“It’s really been nice to have for him because he can still be part of the class,” she said.
Sapp also said she believes the school has done a good job of involving parents in the planning process, including helping to decide what equipment to install.
“We have quite a bit to go but what we have has turned out really nicely,” she said.
While it’s unclear what kind of crowd the 5K will draw, Whip said in previous year, it has typically drawn about 100 participants.
Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0355 or msanctis@coxohio.com.
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