Every Child Deserves to Play

This year’s Butterfly Ball fundraiser for Gwendolyn’s Playground for children of all abilities and disabilities put the fundraising effort across the $5 million mark. The fully inclusive playground has another $1 million to go to reach the $6 million it will take to buid the playground, and its supporters intend to raise another $3 million for the baseball and multi-sport field at Dwight Murphy Field. Analise Maggio’s heartfelt speech at the Butterfly Ball explains the importance of this goal.

I met the Strongs in early 2011, just after Gwendolyn’s third birthday. We had moved to a new home on Laguna Street, and the Strongs lived around the corner. I had a newborn baby boy, my first, and I was rocking him in a rocking chair on our front porch one day when Bill and Gwendolyn walked by. I still remember seeing Gwendolyn for the first time, lying flat in a wheelchair with breathing tubes and machines traveling with her. I was an exhausted new mother. My son was just weeks old and he didn’t sleep much, and I was so tired. And while I was wallowing in my exhaustion, here were Bill and Gwendolyn, delighting in their time together, grateful to be outside, counting their blessings. “What am I complaining about?” I thought. Life must be so different for them.

I had already heard about the Strongs and the foundation they started in their daughter’s name: the Gwendolyn Strong Foundation. Gwendolyn was born with a rare genetic disease called spinal muscular atrophy, or SMA, for which there was no treatment. She was perfectly healthy at birth, but by three months old she was having a hard time holding her head up, and by the time she was one, Gwendolyn was completely paralyzed. Her mother, Victoria, wrote a blog chronicling life with Gwendolyn. I read every word. She courageously and honestly described the challenges their family faced every day, the work they were doing, the gifts Gwendolyn gave them. Here was this fellow mama doing everything she could for her baby girl. And I thought, we are so alike. I would do anything for my child, too.