Washington Rep. Cyrus Habib lost his sight when he was eight years old while attending Somerset Elementary in Bellevue. As a child, he said he wanted to play on the jungle gym as much as any 8-year-old.
“They kept me by the side of the school with the recess lady and the teachers while the rest of the kids played,” he said during Tuesday’s Rotary Club of Bellevue luncheon. Habib’s mom took him to the principal, where she told the administrator she would teach him how to navigate the playground. “She said, ‘I can fix a broken arm. I can never fix a broken spirit.’ “
The Bellevue lawmaker shared this story with fellow rotarians at Downtown Park Tuesday, where the club celebrated reaching its Inspiration Playground funding milestone of $1.8 million. A public-private partnership with the city, the rotary club hopes to raise $4.3 million for the outdoor play environment that will be accessible to children and adults of all abilities.
Not only will the park offer sensory-rich play and equipment that allows children with disabilities to interact with their peers, it will let disabled adults play with their children and grandchildren, said former Rotary Club of Bellevue President Rob Rose. Drawing from similar experiences volunteering with the club’s Nepal Disability Awareness Project, Rose said children with disabilities are initially pitied on the playground.
“Within a half-hour (children) see the underlying individual and that perception kind of disappears,” he said.
Seven percent of children in Bellevue have a disability, said Bellevue Mayor Claudia Balducci, representing a population of 4,300. That includes her son, who requires hearing aids. She told the rotary club she is excited to soon have a playground in the heart of downtown that will truly be inclusive to everyone.
Sen. Steve Litzow, R-Mercer Island, also lauded the city and rotary’s work to make the Inspiration Playground a reality. Chairman for the state Senate’s Early Learning and K-12 Education Committee, Litzow said the playground will offer an educational experience for children, showing them people’s differences do not define them.
“An idea I had with (Rep.) Ross Hunter was to bring everyone from Olympia down,” Litzow joked.
The rotary club is still awaiting decisions on $2.5 million in outstanding grant requests, and hopes to begin the first phase of the Inspiration Playground next summer. Rotarian Pat Naselow said a lack of accessible restrooms at the park will also be addressed within the project.
Bellevue Park Planning and Development Manager Glenn Kost said funds committed to renovating the current playground at Downtown Park are being dedicated to construction of the new Inspiration Playground.
