New Jersey school ramps up fundraising for adaptive playground

WESTVILLE, N.J. (CBS) — It's back-to-school time, but for one Gloucester County school, that also means back to the drawing board. Archbishop Damiano School has been working for years to turn a dream into reality. This year, the school is prepared to ramp up the fundraising pace.

You'll often find students dreaming of their perfect playground at Archbishop Damiano School. Their wish list, posted in the hallway, includes everything from slides and swings to sensory tables with sand, music and water.

"These types of sensory experiences are so important for these kids," Brittany Carney said.

Carney is a mother of three children who attend the school. Sitting with her 7-year-old son Logan, it's easy to see she wants the best for him and his siblings. The current playground at the school is far from that.

"He doesn't know how to sit on a typical swing," she said. "He needs an adaptive swing, and I feel like he is missing out."

Logan is just one of more than 100 students who attend Archbishop Damiano's school in Westville. Archbishop Damiano serves students with intellectual and developmental disabilities, ages 3 to 21. However, the playground is 15 years old and situated on a raised, cracked hard surface. Most notably, it lacks adaptive equipment for students with special needs.

"It's really hard to get around out there now," Kelly Plucinski said.

Plucinski's daughter attends the school and would like to see the playground updated.

"If it's hard for her to get up on the playground, then she can't really play with the other children on the playground," Plucinski said.

The school's executive director, Michele McCloskey, has been trying to raise funds for a new playground for years.

"Students that are in wheelchairs aren't getting equitable experiences right now," McCloskey said. "They're not able to access the playground equipment. If they go up on a piece, there's nowhere for them to turn around and come back down. We actually travel to other playgrounds right now so that our students can have those experiences, and that makes me sad."

Archbishop Damiano is a private, nonprofit school. McCloskey says tuition dollars go toward adaptive equipment and communication devices needed in the classroom. She says spending limits are also placed on some therapeutic items, including playground equipment, and grants have been hard to find.

"For playgrounds, there's not a lot out there in the way of financial resources for us," McCloskey said.

But that hasn't stopped the planning. The school wants to move the playground to the back of the building to a quiet, flat space with more shade. She says adding adaptive equipment — designed for the students — will provide them with a sense of independence and freedom.

"There's not a lot of things that I get to do in the world that feel like they're made for us," Carney said. "So, when we have these spaces that are meant for kids like mine, that's life-changing as a parent. That means the world to me."

McCloskey says private donations are essential, but progress is slow going. The school has raised only $100,000 of the $600,000 needed. But school leaders have just secured a donor who has promised to match every dollar donated .