During the 2021-22 school year, students in Laurie Kenny’s first grade classroom read a story in their weekly Scholastic News about a student in a wheelchair who advocated to make her playground more inclusive. Students were inspired and wanted to raise money so we could add inclusive playground equipment to our existing playground. Their goal was to raise $700. They donated gently used toys to sell at a garage sale and made a video to share with the Narragansett community asking for donations. They ended up raising $3000 which resulted in the school purchasing two new pieces of equipment.

The new equipment was recently installed and Narragansett School is hosting a ribbon cutting ceremony on Thursday, Sept. 14 at 3:30 p.m. Laurie Kenny has since retired and now lives in North Carolina, but will be traveling to Maine to participate. All of the families of the students who were in Mrs. Kenny’s first grade class, as well as members of the Narragansett Community have been invited.

Additionally, during the same school year, 5th Grader Caleb Yaeger (now a 7th grader) sold pieces of his artwork to raise money to help purchase a basketball hoop for the playground. That has also been installed.

A brief ceremony recognizing the efforts of these students has been planned.