FESTIVAL EXTENDS DAY TO DIFFERENTLY-ABLED KIDS.
Nearly everone who works for the Strawberry Festival, and the volunteers who help Festival-goers, say their favorite thing at the Festival is Special Smiles Day. Friday kicked off with the morning adapted for special needs kids. For this annual event, the Strawberry Festival turns off sounds and lights to accommodate those who are unable to tolerate loud noise and bright lights. In addition to the families that came on their own, last year the event drew 24 schools, and totaled 1,200 students. This year 31 schools signed up, and 2,400 students beamed throughout the morning.
Sixty students and staff came from Wharton High School in New Tampa. “This is my first time coming to Special Smiles,” Sherry Hargis said. “It’s a great opportunity for special-needs kids, and we are really happy to be here today. The kids are excited about getting on rides, and riding rides.”
Three years ago, Chris Sparkman was the catalyst to start Special Smiles Day. Sparkman has been associated with the festival for years, and his kids grew up going to it. “One of my sons is non-verbal autistic,” he said. “He has always loved the Festival. But the last few years we began noticing that, as he got older, he was having more and more difficulty handling the loud noises and the crowds of people. All the midway rides have their different music playing pretty loud—that is part of the environment out there—and he would struggle, cover his ears, and it would hurt him. So, we got noise-cancelling headphones for him. That would work some, but it’s just not comfortable. So, I was thinking about it, and I figured, this happened to us, and it has got to be happening to a lot of people. So, having the involvement in the Festival that I do, I took it to then-president Paul Davis, and asked, ‘What can we do?’” The pair came up with a plan, date, and time. Davis took the idea a step further, to include $10 food vouchers for the first 1,500 guests that first day. The current president, Kyle Robinson, brought Special Smiles Day to the Rotary Club of Plant City to contribute, and they overwhelmingly supported it. “They do a great job with a lot of things in town,” Sparkman continued. “They wanted to be a sponsor of it. Not only do they give funds to help cover the costs of the midway rides and the food. Just about every single member of that club comes out and volunteers. Over the last couple of years that we have done this, we have talked with kids, parents and family members as they come through, and there is a lot of them that say, ‘Thank you for this, because without this, we could never bring our child out to the Festival. It’s just not an environment that’s conducive at all.’ People are really appreciative of the thought that we have done this, and it keeps growing.”
Carlos Blake has a daughter whose birthday was on Special Smiles Day. “My daughter is autistic, and we came for a therapy session,” he said. “She is really, really excited. It is very refreshing to see her having a good time, and enjoying the Strawberry Festival. I’m impressed with the structure—how they set up where the kids can be in their own space and enjoy, and have a good experience at the Strawberry Festival. I am very impressed by the way they set it up for the kids to be treated like VIPs to come in and have a good time.”
For these special needs people, rides were the feature of the day, but a show of dogs doing tricks, and an Amish donut eating competition were among the options that added to the entertainment.
The Pathways School of Excellence is a middle and high school for students with special needs. It also has program for young adults transitioning into the workplace. The school is in Lakeland and is a part of Southeastern University. “It is a really great opportunity for our kids to try new things,” Amber Johnson said while chaperoning the students. “A lot of them haven’t ever been able to try rides, or to try new foods, the variety here is excellent for all the kids.”
Melanie Cook has come from Polk County for the past three years of the event. “I think it is an amazing day,” she said. “This is such a great opportunity for children with special needs—that they put this on—we are really thankful for it.
