What started as one teacher staring out of a classroom window during lunch has turned into a movement that has captured an entire community.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Students at Glen Lake Elementary School in Minnesota have raised more than $600,000 to transform their playground into a fully accessible space so every child — including classmates who use wheelchairs — can finally enjoy recess together.
And remarkably, it all began with a single moment of frustration.
Fifth and sixth-grade teacher Betsy Julien said she was looking out over the playground one day when reality suddenly hit her.
“My classroom overlooks this beautiful playground that we have,” she told USA TODAY. “I was just having lunch one day overlooking recess time … I just had this light bulb moment of ‘This is not OK.'”
The school currently has around eight students who use wheelchairs, but the playground was not designed with accessibility in mind. Julien, who also has a child who uses a wheelchair, knew something had to change.
Initially, the plan was relatively modest.
After discussions with colleagues and staff, Julien decided to pursue funding for a wheelchair-accessible swing and merry-go-round. She applied for a grant, while the district also committed some financial support.
But there was still a major hurdle.
The school needed another $35,000.
That was when Julien turned to her students for help — and one question from a child completely changed the scale of the project.
“Why aren’t we doing the whole playground?” the student asked.
From that point on, things escalated fast.
The students launched a fundraising page and reportedly brought in around $10,000 on the very first day alone. What was originally a mission to secure a few accessible additions suddenly evolved into a huge campaign to build a completely inclusive playground for every student.
Within months, the children had already raised hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“Even though it sounded astronomical, in the playground world, it’s very normal and humble,” Julien said.
What makes the story even more remarkable is how involved the students have been every step of the way.
This hasn’t been a symbolic school fundraiser where children simply sell a few cookies and move on. The students have effectively turned themselves into a full-scale fundraising operation.
According to Julien, the kids go home every night brainstorming new ideas before bringing them back to school the next day to discuss as a group.
They’ve created posters outlining both short-term and long-term goals, while organising themselves into around 20 separate “advisory groups” focused on different fundraising strategies.
Some worked on bake sales.
Others focused on coin drives.
Some handed out flyers across the community.
And others went directly to local businesses.
“They took Google Maps and kind of split it up,” Julien explained. “Then they each chose a section and they called every single business within a two-mile radius, which was about 400 businesses.”
That level of commitment alone would be impressive from adults.
But the students didn’t stop there either.
Because Julien is licensed to drive a bus, the group piled in together and travelled around locally to speak directly with members of the community about the initiative and encourage support.
Some students have reportedly discussed creating a nonprofit organisation that could help other schools build accessible playgrounds too — even schools with fewer special needs students than Glen Lake Elementary.
“They still deserve a really great playground,” Julien recalled the students saying.
For Julien, the impact of hearing children advocate so passionately for inclusion goes far beyond the playground itself.
“As a parent who has a special needs child, I mean, that just means the world,” she said. “That’s what you want. You want your kids to be accepted and loved and for other people to advocate and fight for them. That’s what my class is doing.”
Featured image credit: Betsy Julien / USA Today / YouTube (screenshot)
