There is a Way

After, I told Colden we should do something about the swing being inaccessible, I reached out to other colleagues to see if there was anyway we could get a mat or paved pathway installed to get wheelchair users to the swing.

One of the people I reached out to was Melissa. She is involved in a gazillion things and would surely know of someway to get a path. We talked for a bit and toured the playground and, in that time, she convinced me that we could totally raise enough money for a whole new playground! I won't lie when I say that I was hesitant. It's an obscene amount of money! How could we possibly do that?! Although we weren't entirely sure, she was totally confident we could and since we were both willing to write grants on behalf of the school, manage the playground company, and do all the leg work, what could go wrong!? Haha! It turns out a lot can go wrong!

It was a long, frustrating process. There are so many rules and regulations that have to be followed and doing that through the school meant even more. We went to a board meeting, we got playground quotes, and tried to maneuver all the red tape. It took over a year to get answers and most of them were not the ones we wanted. NYS does not make things easy. But if you know Melissa, then you know she doesn't take "no" for an answer. It's not in her nature to accept defeat, give up, or settle for less than she wants. So while she was trying to find a way around all the "nos" we were handed, she discovered it just might be easier and wiser to start a nonprofit of our own.