Foundation aims to add sensory rooms in all county schools

Published 3:00 pm Saturday, December 19, 2020

Stacey Givens could see how well sensory therapy helped her son, and it led her to build a sensory room that could help him while he was at school, too. Since then, through donations and help from the community, she and others built six more for Athens City Schools.

Now, the group formally known as the Make A Way Foundation are on a journey to build one in each county school, too.

“The mission has always been the same — to provide support and services to groups of two or more special needs individuals in a recreational or education environment,” Givens, who serves as Make A Way’s board president and founder, said.

The rooms include a variety of equipment and features to help children with special needs express themselves or let off steam without interrupting their classmates or teachers. This can be with a trampoline to jump on, mats to throw themselves into, spin discs, bubble lamps that glow and play soothing sounds and more.

Givens said the first sensory room was built for FAME Academy at Brookhill Elementary, where her autistic son attended. After seeing how well sensory therapy at a Madison clinic was helping her child, she asked Brookhill to let her put some equipment in a faculty room, “for my son to be able to get a break a couple of times during the day,” she said.

“Other kids started using that equipment, they began to see the benefits of that, then we received donations … and we were able to install the first official sensory room,” Given said. “After that, we received calls from the other elementary schools, the intermediate school, to assist them.”

The donations came from the Athens Rotary Club, Ladies Civitan and Lions Club, as well as from individual donors in the community, she said. One donor provided the full amount needed to install sensory rooms at the middle and high school, and they took their support a step further by encouraging Givens to form a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.

Each room is carefully designed, with weighted desks or blankets, special flooring and lighting and padded walls. Even the paint colors and how sound travels in the room are taken into consideration.

“It’s not a typical classroom, where the sound bounces off the walls and tile floors,” Givens said. “The floors are made of rubber tile, and we have a sound system in all of them, where they get to choose the sound they listen to, whether that’s ocean sounds or crickets or white noise — whatever is appealing to them.”

A timer allows students to know just how much time they have in the room. Givens said that feature doubles as a reminder that the room is meant for therapy, not recess.

Sensory rooms are different than physical education programs, because they address certain physical stimulations to which a special needs student has a positive response. A special education teacher can schedule one or more times during the school day for a child to take advantage of the room to reset and refocus.

“Many parents state their gratitude for the difference it makes in their children,” Givens said. “We have teachers and aides say it makes a huge difference not just for the children, but for the other students in the classroom because there are less distractions.”

So far, Givens and the Make A Way Foundation have installed two rooms for Limestone County Schools — one at Creekside Elementary and one at East Limestone High. She said the rooms are $4,000 to $5,000 each, depending on how the space is constructed or furnished beforehand, and they are paid for entirely through donations, then built by volunteers. For example, Athens First United Methodist Church put together the Creekside and East rooms as part of Missions 144, she said.

Donations can be made by visiting foundationmakeaway.org or “Make A Way Foundation” on Facebook. Donations are tax-deductible.

As for what they’ll do once their goal of room at every county school is accomplished, Givens said she isn’t sure yet.

“We just want to meet the needs of the special needs community,” she said.

Recently, that involved hosting a holiday event for special needs children to visit Santa Claus without being overwhelmed by the bright lights, loud noises and other possibly overwhelming characteristics of a St. Nick meet-and-greet at the park or mall. The visit was hosted at Athens attorney and Make-A-Way Foundation board member Jim Moffat’s law office in Athens.

The United U12 Black volleyball team volunteered as elves, and their parents helped provide cookies for children to decorate. Givens said with the players’ and parents’ help, children could talk, wave and visit Santa, plus do crafts and hear a story from Mother Christmas.

Volunteers play a key role in any event or project, and Givens encouraged those interested in helping in the future to reach out.

“If anyone would like to volunteer their time, there is an email address on our website and Facebook,” Givens said. “Let us know, and when we install a room, we can use people to paint, put together equipment — which is really easy to do, just hands, no power tools. We need people to clean floors, maybe patch holes.”

She said any level of ability is welcomed.

“If they’ll just let me know they’re interested in volunteering some time, I’ll be in touch when we’re ready,” she said.