Elliot Devereaux gripped the spongy ball in her right hand, eyed the dozen targets at varying distances in front of her and cocked her arm back. The goal was simple: strike the cups on their pedestals and knock them down.
She tossed the ball at the target closest to her and nailed it. Sure, the ball bounced once along the way, but the cups went down. Elliot’s wide smile was matched by the excited cheers from those around her, specifically teacher Jennifer Sheehan and assistant Angela Wiesemann, standing off along her left side.
Elliot turned and gave a double high-five to Sheehan, but knocking down a pair of stacked cups on a stand wasn’t the end of her success on Oct. 1. She and some 140 of her peers among the Stafford Township School District’s Special Services population had succeeded in a much greater way during the “Stafford Olympics.”
“It’s all about working together, socializing, interacting with other students within their own class and other classes within the district,” said Vice Principal of Special Education Carolyn Roselli. “It’s part of the education process, even while they’re having fun, and the physical education department does an awesome job of creating a lot of stations that tap into their different interests.”
For an hour, the special education students from throughout the district’s five school buildings converged onto the playground outside the McKinley Avenue School and, essentially, played together, with groups of students rotating among nine activity stations designed to showcase their athletic abilities, teamwork and focus.
TOUGH COMPETITION: Teacher Dan DiPasquale takes on some Primary Learning Center Bears in a game of tug-o-war during the Stafford Olympics on Oct. 1, held on the playground of the McKinley Avenue School.
“We get all the special needs students in the district out together, working and moving together,” said physical education teacher and event director Jon Pandolfo. “We’re trying to get everybody together for a wide range of activity stations, with a little community engagement thrown in. It’s a feel-good event that brings us together as a school community.”
But with the Stafford Olympics – whether it’s the obstacle course station or the pumpkin relay station, the basketball station or the tug-o-war station – there’s no real competition taking place. No scores are kept. There’s no list of winners. Bragging rights aren’t on the line or even mentioned.
However, the wins are real. Most of the time, those wins are in the form of a hug, a pat on the back, a smile, maybe some laughter, and everybody involved wins in some way.
“Inclusion is huge in our district,” said Director of Special Services Hope Zaun. “We’re fortunate to have our student ambassadors from the Intermediate School come out to help at the station. There’s a lot of engagement between them and our special education students during this event.
“We really strive to include all our students in every possible way, and this is just one example of the many ways we include our special education students with their peers. It also shows the general population that there is a collaboration between the different groups of students, for the acceptance and care of all people. It’s a benefit to all the students.”
OVER THE BAR: Stafford Township School District student Arya Ventre clears one of the hurdles on the obstacle course with a little help from teacher assistant Joanne Sprague,
Along with Intermediate student ambassadors, Compassion Café brought a contingent of older peers, including some who recently won medals during the New Jersey Special Olympics, giving the youngsters among them a glimpse of hope for their futures.
“It was nice to have Compassion Café athletes here with us,” Pandolfo said. “It gives a lot of our students some hope that they’ll be able to compete in the Special Olympics one day.”
Of course, it takes a colossal effort to pull off an event with more than 140 special education students, making sure they engage and don’t get hurt, but most of all soak in their educational experience in a fun, enjoyable way.
“There’s a lot of prep work that goes into this, but on Game Day everybody knows exactly where they need to be and what we’re doing,” Pandolfo said. “Many hands lighten the load, and all those smiles we see from the kids make it worth all the effort.”
BIG WINNER: Compassion Café’s Grace Weidenhof hangs a medal around the neck of a young student after he and 140 peers had a lot of fun together during the Stafford Olympics.
Zaun said the district excels with its Special Services because of its community mindset.
“It takes a community to teach our special education students,” she said, “everybody from our administrators to the teachers and teacher aides. We had occupational therapists, physical therapists, speech therapists and case managers out here. Compassion Café had people here. It really takes a village to do these types of events, and all the different roles we have within the district, serving our special education students, were represented today. This is what we do so well here.”
At the end of the hour-long event, after she received her medal from Compassion Café’s Grace Weidenhof, Devereaux and eight of her classmates gathered for a photo as they showed off their hardware – “a home run of a day,” Pandolfo said.
“Day to day, for us as physical education teachers, it’s about getting them moving and associate a positive feeling with movement,” he said. “But when you have a student who can be in an environment where they have supportive peers with them, that’s the goal. A day like this showcases and highlights the joy that comes with that type of environment, and it give parents the chance to see how we’re working within the district to give their children an outstanding education environment and that we truly care about them.”
