10.2.2025 - Sensory Playground Announcement for Abbott Court

Good morning. My name is uh Mike Dion.

I'm the director of community development. And today we're here in such a beautiful day. Um we're at Abbott Court, uh one of our playgrounds in the city. And as you can see, it's a a pretty big complex. And today we're here to unveil um our new uh sensory playground, which is for autistic children. Um we have uh some ren renderings up here that'll show you and some drawings that'll show you what it's

going to look like. Um, you know, we we take really a great pride in our parks and redoing our parks. We've done millions and millions of dollars um throughout the years. And over the last uh four or five years, um there's been nobody better to work with than our current mayor, which is Mayor Paul Coogan. Uh he understands that our parks are really, really important to our residents of the city of Fall River. uh

you know uh a lot of people don't have the money to go out and do a vacation and go go here, go there and they use the parks as their vacation area. So um uh keeping up uh we've made it a priority in the community development agency to provide funding for that sole purpose to make the parks look good. So I'd like to introduce I work with him every day. Uh uh he's a great person to

work with. um he he really loves the the young people of our community and uh I' I've seen such great commitment from him concerning the parks and I'd like to turn it over to uh Mayor Coug.

Thank you, Mike. Uh that that's very kind. Uh I do want to quickly introduce a few people we work with that are also uh extremely integral to making this uh this playground successful. one of our park commissioners, our chairman, uh, BJ McDonald is here and our city councelor, uh, vice chairman, Linda Pereira, who also is very concerned about what goes on in our parks every day. Uh, we think

this playground located in the south end of the city will be a catalyst for other moves we're going to do around the city.

Um, May's playground actually comes from one of my former students, so we're going to give him the credit. He's going to talk in a minute. Um, he wanted this.

He wanted this in this spot. He was just showing me his house over there. You can see the chimney from here and he thinks that that's going to be important for these neighborhood kids. Abbott Court is one of those parks that's situated right in the middle of a very, very busy neighborhood. And when this is completed, we still have a little work to do on our skateboard park over there,

but there are things we have planned across parks across the city, both North Pilaski, Travasos, Whitland. So, there's things going on in our parks. It'll be in our capital improvement plan. and with the help of the council and um and uh our interim park uh director uh Darren Medeiros, we have work going on and we're going to get it done. Um I but right now the person that I I attribute

this whole project to that came to our office uh he only hit me a couple of times and he came in and uh said we need to get this done. He made his impassion plea uh and it did not fall on deaf ears. who are more than willing to work with residents when they have a good idea that'll improve the city and make this a better place for our kids. Uh Marcel, come on up.

Hey, thanks for coming out everybody. Uh first I just want to thank Mayor's office, Mayor Coogan, Mike Dion, because uh when we started this project, uh we use the the phrase, you know, we're going to we want to fight for this park.

But to be honest with you, it wasn't much of a fight. You know, once we got the time and we explained our vision to Mayor Kan and Mike, uh they they knew it was the right thing. It was the right thing for this space. It was the right thing for our city. It was the right thing for autism community, which is a strong community in Fall River. It's um

if it wasn't a school day and it wasn't 10:30, I would have uh from here to the back of the park with special education teachers, ABA counselors that support this project, that love this project. I also like to thank my girlfriend May's mom. She's a big uh motivation for me.

She can't be here today because uh she's battling her own battle with stage four lung cancer. And uh but I just had to mention her because without her, we wouldn't have got this done. And um her every Melissa Carrero, she has her own Little Wanderers. She's an autism advocate and she sets the standard in this city. Um it motivated me to try to get something like this done. This is

going to be um more than a park. It's going to be a uh I want it to be a a hub for not just for the kids in this that need it. We can go on for hours what it does for the kids. We all know that. But what a great thing this park's going to do. It's going to be uh a place that a parent could come and just decompress.

You know, just their kid, their child will be safe. They could play along with other children that maybe be that are not on a on a spectrum, but they'll be playing with the same apparatuses.

They'll be facing each other, playing in the same mazes, the same sensory panels, helping each other up a a structure. And to me, that's beautiful. But it's also going to be a place where the parents can come and they can talk to each other. They can um maybe share resources, maybe um just sit back and decompress and share, you know, their struggles and relate to another parent

going through the same thing. And to me, that's a beautiful thing. And that's why it's going to be more than the park.

It's going to be something great. It's a great day for the city and I just like to thank everybody, you know, they're making it possible. Thank you.

Any questions? Anybody questions?

Can you guys talk about the differences between a sensory park from a normal playground?

Yes. Uh there's actually there's like little levels of playgrounds and even an all occlusion park is not so much of a sensory park, but we're going to have uh these um sensory panels where where kids can it doesn't matter what age you're at. It's the type of sensory panel it could uh a child two year old, three year old, four-year-old can play with an able-bodied child, seven or eight, and

they're included. Because one big thing about about kids on on a spectrum. My daughter anyway, she learns a lot from observing. She might not jump right into uh the century panels or the structures or she's going to come here feel a texture, something something different that that that sparks their senses and opens up a door for them. And next thing you know, she might just be staring out

at all the other kids playing. But she's learning while she's doing that. And it's opening up doors that sometimes us parents can't get to. We're trying to kick them down, but sometimes we need a little help, you know, and learning through play. I that that that's I I feel it helps. It's it's the way.

You did a story about your own backyard.

Were you integral in the design and, you know, having firstand experience?

Yes. Yeah. That was that's where it all started, you know, um with my with my girlfriend's diagnosis, we had to get something. My daughter loved the swings here and once that wasn't here, I I said, "Okay, we need something in our own backyard that she could play with."

So, uh, I started making century panels for her. It's become a passion, you know, I haven't stopped. And, uh, it turned into the the the the outpouring of support was overwhelming and everybody I I realized that we all need this. We all need it. And and I'll tell you one thing, my daughter could have the best century panels in my backyard and but playing with other children there's it doesn't compare like her

learning the learning curve when she's playing with somebody else rather than being included in something it it's it's great. It's great.

Yeah, we have a budget $600,000 you want to talk about. So, we're looking at somewhere around $600,000.

Uh we we're going to apply for a park grant, a CPC grant, and obviously with Marcel's uh passion and vigor, we'll do some private fundraising, but uh I I am confident we're going to get this done.

So, it'll be within budget and it'll be down here for the kids.

You have a timeline in terms of uh we would like to go in next spring.

Yeah, we're thinking in the spring.

We'll have a full winter of raising some money, getting our grants in order, and uh look look to break ground in the spring.

Would you describe please for us where the ideas came from? Do you have professional ideas? And is there another similar?

Is there a playground similar to this nearby that you've accessed want to mimic?

Yes. Yes, absolutely. Uh Noah's Place in New Bedford is beautiful. It's it's it's uh that was when I when I saw that that I mean I wish that we had something like that in Fall River. And then when um I started making um sentry panels myself and I started learning about you know what triggers my daughter into opening up these doors where she gets curious and stuff. That's when I noticed that

okay this is a a new thing for all of us. We're all learning. We're all learning like how this works. But okay.

But um No, I'm sorry. Noah's Place and um they just built a new one in Portsmouth and that one was uh it's beautiful. So if we could get something like that here, it'd be great for the city, which is great.

What growth do you hope to see, not only your daughter, but all the other children? I know it's measured in stages, like any illness. What would you hope to see? Well, what to me like with my daughter, um I would love for her to just to to see these obstacles and these challenges and not be afraid because she sees other kids doing them. And there might be a a child on a spectrum that's

a little bit more advanced than her and and they might help her get up to that second level or or or she they might come down to the first level and help her. That's all inclusion. That's that's the beauty of it and that that's what we're working for. Could you describe the process for deciding what would be in the sensory park? Were there any organizations consulted? Was it sort of

a trial and go what was in your backyard?

Yeah. Um well what it um I started studying on it obviously uh just grab before she grabs the bikes and runs. But um yeah I it became a passion for me building my own sentry panel. So then I started it started advancing. I started um you know researching, okay, what what do these kids love? What where different there's not many of these pops around. It's going to be one of a kind

in this city and they're starting to get more and more but but um it wasn't it wasn't hard to find the ones around this country and I would just see what the vendors offered were what and um well and and it's still a process. We're still um we're still learning and you know if we got um if we get other more input during this process and we can you know get some differences if that'd be great.

Also that's what we plan on doing also is putting it out to the general public. Um we're going to have them uh what you see today was renderings that were done by stock architects. They did a wonderful job. Um we're not going to probably be held to those. We're going to go out to the community, ask the community what they think, probably in the month of November or December. Um, get some input

from them. Uh, we're talking about a major major project here. So, we want to get it right. Um, we're looking at somewhere around, I think the mayor said 500 to 600,000. You're looking at different funding sources with community preservation act. You're looking at the park grant, state park grant, some money from the community development as a match. And it brings us right into what

I want Marcel to speak about is we're going to do a lot of fundraising. So, yep, we got a we got a lot of fundraising planned. A lot a lot a lot of fun things that we're going to unveil some starting this weekend where the community can be all be involved because that's that's that's a great thing. I want the community to be involved in this. You know, it's something that we

all agree on. It's something that nobody's against. So, if we can all get together and get it done, we got we got we got uh things that I don't want to unveil them yet, but it's going to be fun and we're going to get them all here. We all we also this type of project, it brings out the best in people. And I've been contacted through people that want to make in kind

donations and let me know what I can do.

And I I really feel confident that we'll be able to get what we need to get this done. Definitely. I just want to I do want to acknowledge uh who's she joined us here today. The architect uh Katherine Laughenberg from Stark Architect. She also came down to see what this would go like and we appreciate all her work she put into the design for this. So, thank you very much.

One of the other things too, just to let you know that we've set up a separate web page for any kind of donations that people want to give to the project. What are the uh what's the website?

Um mazeplayground.org.

And we got a Facebook page too is Maze Playground and that's going to be connected to the Greater Fall River Recreation um nonprofit agency that we have in the city. So any donations or tax write offs or anything and that's going to be uh segregated solely any donations for this playground. So if anybody wants to go to that web page, that's great. If you want to make a donation to to uh CD Wreck,

just go out and say it's for the playground maze playground and they'll put it separate on the side. So, it's uh it's going to be a great um uh project.

Can't wait.

Absolutely.

Riley Ry.

Yes. Yeah. Mayor O'Reilly.

Any other questions or anything?

Is it going here or?

Yes. Right here.

Everything will be the same. We used to have a playground that was here before.

The playground was a safety issue. It was made out of wood back in I want to say probably in the 1980s. We've gone through different pro uh parks and put new playgrounds. Right now, we're currently working on Columbus Park.

We're putting in a playground in that area. And uh this will be the first sensory playground in in in Fall River.

So, it will be a draw to this area. You know, hopefully, you know, people from all over Fall River come by and might even start taking some people from other surrounding communities, which is great.

Yep. And that that's the great thing about AICO. It's a beautiful place. It's a beautiful park. And uh once we get this complete, I want this this will be an attraction for the city. So it's it's great thing. Great day today.

Cool. Well, thank you very much.

Thank you guys. Thank you.