110 degrees magazine - Index

110 degrees magazine - magazine - Index

PEEKS I BY JIM FRAZIER, WITH LISA MCBRIDE AND KEVIN ROMICK I PHOTOS BY RUSSELL BYRNE
A PLAYGROUND
FOR ALL CHILDREN
One of the good movements in our modern
culture is our growing willingness to provide
equal participation for everyone in society irrespective
of their abilities.
Three of us are seeking to create an attractive
state-of-the-art venue in which children who are
unable to respond completely to the world
around them — or to walk, see, or hear — can
play naturally and safely side-by-side with children
who can. We are heading up an effort aimed
at taking inclusion to levels never dreamt of by
previous generations.
THE THREE AMIGOS, OAKLEY
STYLE
The three of us share a shining vision of providing
a place where children with all kinds of
disabilities will play side-by-side with each other
and with any child who is willing to have a good
time in the company of other children.
We’re confident that we’ll make this happen
because the three of us bring a complete set of
skills and experience creating synergy for accomplishing
a great purpose that none of us could
ever have pulled off on our own.
Lisa McBride began her odyssey as she
responded to the trials of coping with her son’s
16 www.110mag.com September/October 2008
JIM SHARES THE CHALLENGING VISION OF
BUILDING A PLAY AREA THAT WILL BRING
TOGETHER CHILDREN OF ALL ABILITIES.
autism. Lisa declared war upon her son’s condition;
she used resources such as the Internet to
become a self-taught expert on the condition’s
symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment.
Lisa established the Special Kids Foundation
as a way of sharing what she learned and to
provide support for the more than 5,000 children
diagnosed with disabilities in East County
in the 2005 Census. (The current figure is much
greater than this.)
“Our goal is to provide support for and friendship
with these incredibly challenged children
and their families,” Lisa said. “We’re supplying
resources to raise these special kids to be
productive, happy, successful adults, regardless
of their disabilities.”
Kevin Romick, the Data Center Manager for
the USS Posco Industries, may know the inner
workings of Oakley business and government as
well as anybody alive. He has served as member
of the Oakley City Council, mayor, chairperson of
the Planning Commission, member of the
Advisory Board for Opportunity Junction, and
member of the East Country Business Education
Alliance. He has been the key person for a lot of
municipal development projects. He knows how
to get things done and is our guide in navigat-
ing the governmental labyrinth in order to secure
required approvals for the playground.
I’ve been in construction for decades and
know how to manage any kind of building project.
I pounded my first nail into a board for good
purpose when I was 11, bracing the floor of my
bedroom to support my new waterbed. I have
done almost every kind of construction including
commercial, industrial, residential, and highend
custom homes. I’m a licensed contractor
with my own construction company called SMF.
So the three of us have the resources we need
to build our accessible playground: Lisa knows
the needs of the kids, Kevin knows the government
side, and I know about construction. We’ve
been “playing together in the sandbox” with this
thing for a few months, and from the beginning
we’ve felt that we’re on a mission to accomplish
something good in this world.
IMPLEMENTING OUR VISION
Inspiration for the project came from an accessible
playground in Concord called Matteo’s
Dream that has the tagline “A Playground for
Children of All Abilities.” I approached Kevin at a
council meeting with the idea of doing a special
needs playground in Oakley. He was immediately