By Eileen Moon
COLTS NECK – Thanks to a group of people united by a common vision, kids with visual impairments will no longer have to sit on the sidelines while other kids are having fun on the playground at Dorbrook Park.
At 10 a.m. Aug. 22 members of the Colts Neck Lions Club and the Friends of the Monmouth County Parks will gather at Dorbrook Park to break ground on the Sensory Lions’ Den, a playground that will be open to all children but has been specially designed for kids with visual impairments.
The idea for the playground began with Justin Lotano, Colts Neck Lions Club president, and his wife Christina, as they sat on their sofa at home one night discussing possible projects the Lions Club could pursue.
The international philanthropic organization has long been known for its work on behalf of blind and visually impaired children and adults around the world, scheduling vision screenings, repairing and distributing eyeglasses, and funding research and treatment of eye diseases.
But to the Lotanos, creating a playground where visually impaired kids could have the kind of fun that every child needs, was paramount.
“My wife came up with the idea,” Lotano said. Initially, the Lotanos weren’t sure if such a thing even existed. They soon found out that it did.
The closest such playground in New Jersey was at the St. Joseph’s School for the Blind in Jersey City, where sensory cues in theplayground provide visually impaired kids with the freedom to play. Justin Lotano paid them a visit. “I learned how important it is for children to be able to have the confidence to play on equipment that other children are playing on,” he said.
As the Lotanos’ idea began to gather steam, Justin Lotano set to work exploring what type of equipment was available, what costs were involved and what obstacles would have to be overcome in order to make the sensory playground a reality in Monmouth County.
He then presented his proposal to the Monmouth County Park System, meeting with officials and park administrators to ask them to consider building a sensory playground at Dorbrook Park. The park on Route 537 has had a playground designed for children with disabilities called the Challenger Place playground for the past 15 years, but it didn’t address specific visual challenges.
Lotano traveled to St. Joseph’s School for the Blind with an architect for the park system. Once the county had all the facts, Lotano said, it agreed to the project. “Once we got the county on board, it was just a matter of figuring out how to come up with the money,”Lotano said.
So Lotano went back to his fellow Lions Club members and asked them to raise the $125,000 necessary to fund the construction of the playground.
“This is a club that normally raises $10,000 a year,” Lotano said. “You can imagine the looks on their faces.”
Fortunately, they committed to the project and the fundraising ball began to roll. “We started coming up with different grants and fundraisers. We just started grinding. I spoke at churches and businesses, $100 here, a thousand there,” he said.
With the help of grants and the support of the community, the Lions Club raised $140,000 to fund the project.
“It’s been a refreshing thing for the whole club,” Lotano said. “Our membership has doubled.”
The money raised by the Lions was presented to the Friends of the Monmouth County Parks, which acts as the intermediary between outside organizations and the Monmouth County Park System on projects like the Sensory Den.
“We are excited to assist them in bringing this project to fruition,” said Maria Wojciechowski, executive director of the Friends of the Monmouth County Park System. “I spoke with the park system last week and they are in process. We expect it to open in October.”
The central piece of the Sensory Den will be a global motion dome. “You can grab onto it and get inside it and it spins,” Lotano said.
The playground will also feature musical instruments like large xylophones, drums that make different sounds and a game that plays different animal sounds when kids push its buttons. There will also be button-activated misting columns.
If all of that sounds like fun, the good news is that while the playground is designed to be accessible for kids with visual impairments, it’s also designed to provide fun for all kids.
“Our ultimate goal is to bring all the children together,” Lotano said.
The Friends of the Monmouth County Parks will thank the Colts Neck Lions Club for its donation at a wine and craft beer tasting to take place at Tatum Park in Middletown Sept. 19. Contact friendsofthemonmouthcountyparks.com for more information.
