Students at Sarasota's Beyond the Spectrum, a nonprofit education & therapy center for children with special needs, will soon have access tools that will teach important life skills because of a THF grant. The school will also add meaningful and adaptive equipment in their newly established playground area.
Grant funds will go toward purchasing items like computers, cooking appliances and sensory items for Jessica Wetherson's classroom. She said these items will help her students in many ways.
"The laptops and kitchen appliances for example would allow them to research a recipe and then learn how to help mom or dad prep and cook the meal," she said. "The different sensory items will help teach students different ways to relax and increase their sensory intake."
Funds will also go toward adding adaptive equipment like an outdoor sand and water table and a swing set with a full support swing seat to the school's playground.
According to the grant application, the purchased adaptive play equipment will provide students with a more accessible and safe recess experience during their school day. The equipment with aid in developing stronger fine motor and gross motor skills in students as well as more developed social skills after engaging in play in this recreation area. These goals will be measured by the school's
teachers and therapists who track consistent data of students’ social, emotional, educational, and physical progress while they are at Beyond the Spectrum.
BTS teacher Jessica Wethersen said she is excited for her students to have access to the new learning tools and equipment.
"I am so grateful to The Hambrick Foundation for the generous grant that will benefit many students for years to come at Beyond the Spectrum," she said.