Glen Lake Elementary School Principal Jeff Radel, students Caleigh Brace, Hadley Mangan, Raqiya Hajik, teacher Betsy Julien; and student John Buettner, (front) pose for a portrait during a visit to Landscape Structures in Delano, Minn.
Caroline Yang for NPR
hide captions
switch captions
Caroline Yang for NPR
Glen Lake Elementary School Principal Jeff Radel, students Caleigh Brace, Hadley Mangan, Raqiya Hajik, teacher Betsy Julien; and student John Buettner, (front) pose for a portrait during a visit to Landscape Structures in Delano, Minn.
Caroline Yang for NPR
While out playing at recess, John Buettner dreamed of learning monkey bars. Fifth graders use wheelchairs, so they cannot reach them—in fact, most playgrounds at Glen Lake Elementary are not.
Meanwhile, Betsy Julien would look out of her classroom window as she ate lunch, look at students in their wheelchairs and think, “Our playground isn’t set up for everyone in the school. play and have fun.”
Julien’s stepson is a third grader in Glen Lake, the Minneapolis suburb of Hopkins, and he also uses a wheelchair. “So the dream and passion of being able to have an accessible device have followed me for a long time.”
Now, thanks to this teacher and her students, that dream is about to come true in a way bigger than she ever imagined.
John Buettner (front), reviewing sample playground designs with other students during a tour at Structural Landscapes in Delano, Minn.
Caroline Yang for NPR
hide captions
switch captions
Caroline Yang for NPR
John Buettner (front), reviewing sample playground designs with other students during a tour at Structural Landscapes in Delano, Minn.
Caroline Yang for NPR
Last fall, Julien and a few of her colleagues signed up and won a grant for an easily accessible ferris and swing. The grant was $35,000 short of what the school needed, so Julien had an idea: She asked both her fifth and sixth graders to help raise the rest.
Her students jumped on the idea and took it one step further. “We were like, ‘Why can’t we make the whole playground accessible?’ ‘ said sixth grader Hadley Mangan. “It was $300,000, a lot, but we knew we could do it.” Tomorrow, they launched an online fundraiser.
Then, students get to work. They come up with ideas for how to raise money: knocking on doors, partnering with restaurants, handing out flyers, and even calling local businesses. “It takes a lot of work because you have to write a script and see if they want to donate to us,” said Raqiya Haji, a sixth grader.
Glen Lake Elementary School fifth and sixth grade students view sample playground designs.
Caroline Yang for NPR
hide captions
switch captions
Caroline Yang for NPR
Glen Lake Elementary School fifth and sixth grade students view sample playground designs.
Caroline Yang for NPR
Students say all the work was worth it. “If this never happened,” says Mangan, students with disabilities “wouldn’t enjoy recess, but I think they would be very happy with our idea.”
Julien’s class hit its $300,000 goal in just a few weeks and has doubled since. Now, they aim to raise $1 million so they can completely transform their playing field. Haji said that anything they raise beyond their own goals will go to accessible devices in neighborhood schools, “because if they see us doing this, they’ll want to too.” there’s a playground”.
John Buettner (centre), talks with classmates on the bus during a field trip to see how the playground is designed.
Caroline Yang for NPR
hide captions
switch captions
Caroline Yang for NPR
John Buettner (centre), talks with classmates on the bus during a field trip to see how the playground is designed.
Caroline Yang for NPR
Last week, Principal Jeff Radel of Julien and Glen Lake took students on two school buses for a field trip to visit the manufacturing plant that will make their playground a reality. They get to see how the equipment is built and even get colored in the blueprints of the playground.
Caleigh Brace, a fifth grader, says she enjoys the wheelchair zipline best. Raqiya Haji can’t wait to see the ferris wheel that will be installed this summer along with the swing.
After the field trip, John Buettner said it was hard for him to believe how quickly an idea became a reality. “I am amazed,” he said, touched by the effort that his classmates and the entire community had put into this project.
“All of these devices are big enough for me and my friends to play with,” says John Buettner. “I just felt some sense of possibility.”
Caroline Yang for NPR
hide captions
switch captions
Caroline Yang for NPR
“All of these devices are big enough for me and my friends to play with,” says John Buettner. “I just felt some sense of possibility.”
Caroline Yang for NPR
While he may not be able to use the monkey bars, he says the new playground opens up a world of possibilities: “All of these devices are big enough for me and my friends to play. I just feel capable.”
Betsy Julien also spoke in tears as she reflected on the project and thought about the changing playing field when the work is completed a year from now.
“As a teacher and a parent, my heart is filled with pride,” she said. “When you have a child with special needs, you have so many hopes and dreams for their life. You hope that the world will be kind, accepting and inclusive with your child.”
