Center for Exceptional Families Vies for Pepsi Refresh Votes

Twelve-year-old Devyn may have cerebral palsy, but it doesn’t stop him from having fun. A participant of the Dearborn-based Oakwood Center for Exceptional Families, he enjoys going outdoors, playing basketball and going on swings. But the center wants to offer more.

The CEF, which provides a family-centered approach to care and education of special needs children and their families in southeast Michigan, is in the running for $50,000 from the Pepsi Refresh grant, which would mean a new, fully accessible play structure for the kids they serve. But they need help from the community to make it happen.

The Pepsi Refresh project started in January 2010, when the company decided to divert funds normally spent on advertising during the Superbowl to a large number of projects throughout the nation. Grants are chosen through online voting, and the top 10 vote-getting ideas in each cost category–set at $10,000, $25,000 and $50,000–receive funding.

The CEF’s All Fun No Limits project–which would include a climbable play structure with a wheelchair-accessible fort atop it–was originally in the running for the December grant. Though it didn’t win, it made it into the top 100, which allowed it to roll over into January.

But this, said Director Tammy Morris, is the last chance.

“We just found out from Pepsi that this is the last month, and then they’re taking a break from the program,” Morris explained. “So it’s really sort of an all-out, last-ditch effort to win this thing now.”

All Fun, No Limits has hit as high as 57 on the list, but has hovered around the 60th spot for most of the month.

Vote-grabbing efforts fell by the wayside in December as the holidays hit, but the staff of CEF is working overtime this month to encourage voting among friends, supporters and families who use the center’s programs.

“We’ve all got it posted on Facebook,” said physical therapist Barb Kaye. “It’s like the only thing on my newsreel every day because we’re all bugging everybody to vote."

The CEF moved into its current facilities on Rotunda Drive in 2008, and though the building was perfect for their growing needs, the playground was not.

“The center is beautiful, however, the playground was built for typically developing children,” Morris explained. “So we have this beautiful yard and the landscaping is fantastic, but our kids in wheelchairs and walkers walk around the sidewalks up to each sort of climber or play area and then can’t access it.

“It’s a very frustrating playground for them.”

Morris and her team hope to add a number of features to the outdoor play area of the center, the biggest of which is the fort structure, the idea for which came out of multiple consulting sessions and attendance at conferences to learn about boundless playgrounds. Other amenities they hope to soon have include a balance climber and a water play area.

But like anything, the projects cost money. A lot of money.

“We have this big plan, and of course it’s expensive to adapt playgrounds and we don’t have that kind of money,” Morris said. “We didn’t just want to have the structure for our kids with physical disabilities, we wanted it to be all integrated. So we came up with this great design and got these quotes, but we would never be able to afford them.”

The structures, added Kaye, will do much more than allow the kids to play.

“Play is how kids learn,” she explained. “That’s normal. If you watch any typically developing child, that’s how they learn–through playing and pushing and … the consequences of their movements and what they can do. Children with movement disorders don’t always have that opportunity.”

But were the All Fun, No Limits project to win the Pepsi Refresh grant, the thousands of children the Center for Exceptional Families serves each year would have just that in time for this summer.

“In the summertime, we’re doing our therapy outside all the time–taking kids roller skating, climbing up and down the hill, rolling up and down the hill–and how much fun will that be if there’s the fort-like aspect?” Kaye said. “It also gives our families the ability to bring kids to a playground during non-therapy time to enjoy and discover just how they can move independently.”

And the payoff will be much more than Pepsi’s $50,000.

To vote for the All Fun, No Limits project, go to www.refresheverything.com/allfunnolimits and click on “Vote for this idea.” Voting can also be done via Facebook, or by texting 104539 to Pepsi (73774). Voting is free and can be done daily.