Nonprofit makes play toward long-term goals

EAST COUNTY — Susannah Cripe climbs into the seat of a backhoe and begins to maneuver the gear with childlike enthusiasm.

“Am I doing it right?” she asks the machine’s driver as the bucket lifts. “This is so awesome.”

Cripe, executive director for Foundations for Dreams — a nonprofit that provides summer camps to children with disabilities through its Dream Oaks Camp programs — won’t let the fun stop here.

In the place where Cripe pushed around dirt, Foundation for Dreams soon will build a 4,000-square-foot playground. The $150,000 playground, which has been customized for the needs of Dream Oaks campers, includes sign language and drum panels, slides, swings and a wider low-incline ramp/walkway to accommodate children using wheelchairs, among other features.

“There’s different panels (on the different) decks to the top and every toy on here is sensory,” Cripe said, adding the ground beneath the playground will be a smooth, rubberized matting. “It’s a completely barrier-free playground.”

Elena Cassella, director of development and fundraising, said Foundation for Dreams began raising funds for the project after polling parents of children attending Dream Oaks Camp about what they would like to see at the facility.

The playground, located between the foundation’s office and cabins on the roughly 15-acre property it leases at Camp Flying Eagle, will have garden boxes and picnic tables around it so it can become a “hub” for families using the facilities. It also will be incorporated into camp activities.

“We’re trying to create an experience for children that they can’t experience at school or at home,” Cassella said. “We wanted them to have an opportunity to interact with other children without restrictions. Children without disabilities can play alongside kids with disabilities.”

Miracle, the playground company building the playground, provided an in-kind donation toward the project. Foundation from Dreams secured grants from the Selby Foundation, Kiwanis Club of Bradenton, the Junior League of Manatee County and Finish Line Youth to secure the remainder of the funding — about $117,000.

The playground, for which concrete was poured this week, will be finished mid-May, in time for the start of Dream Oaks Camp June 23.

But, Cripe and Cassella say, the playground’s construction simply marks the beginning of the foundation’s long-term goals for providing safe activities for the children and families it serves.

The organization hopes to expand its weekend offerings to outside organizations — currently, it provides overnight respite camps once a month and other retreats throughout the year — and also to build an enclosed multipurpose building with kitchen and dining areas, sensory rooms and other features.

“I dream about it every night,” Cripe said, adding such a facility would create more opportunities for programming. “It’ll have a screened-in wraparound porch, fooseball tables and a stage.”

Cassella expects to start raising money for the project — about $900,000 — as soon as possible, in hopes the facility could be ready by summer 2016.

For more information on Foundation for Dreams and Dream Oaks Camp, visit foundationfordreams.org.

Contact Pam Eubanks at [email protected].