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Community Corner

Y Programs Designed with Special Needs in Mind

Marisa McBride joins the New Canaan YMCA as special needs coordinator.

On a recent December afternoon, the Higgins Gymnasium at the New Canaan YMCA was dressed in twinkling Christmas lights and beckoning visitors in from the cold with colorful floor mats, balance beams, and a green inflated bouncy castle.

This den belongs to the Explorer Bears—a group of five special needs children who began practicing gymnastics here at the beginning of December when the Y's winter programs started. One of their instructors is Marisa McBride, who joined the YMCA staff as special needs coordinator in September.

Though YMCA aquatics and other sports classes are inclusive of children with special needs, Explorer Bears and about a dozen other programs are first and foremost designed for special needs children (while also open to all).

McBride says that's what makes the specialized programs—from yoga to art—different from what many of the children are used to.

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"In school, they're accommodated into the traditional school day. This is their thing," McBride said. "I think that's something that's really powerful to them."

As special needs coordinator—a position that was created for her this fall—McBride's duties range from working with families to find a program that best suits their child, to jumping into that bouncy castle during Explorer Bears class. She will also oversee the YMCA's summer camp program, Special Cares.

McBride, a Trumbull native, earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in child life, pediatric health and illness from the University of Connecticut at Storrs in 2007. At the ripe age of 23, she already has a wealth of experience under her belt.

After graduating from UConn, McBride taught transitional kindergarten to special needs children in Charlotte, NC. She also worked at the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp in Ashford—an association started by Paul Newman for children with cancer and other serious illnesses—for more than four years. McBride continues to volunteer at the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp.

In 2008, the YMCA served 125 special needs children and adults. Though this year's numbers haven't been calculated quite yet, McBride said those numbers have definitely risen in 2009.

Joanna Templeton's 13-year-old daughter recently started attending the Explorer Bear gymnastics class. Finding ways to allow her daughter to exercise had been a challenge, she said (she has taken swimming lessons which are often filled with senior citizens).

Templeton said she sat down with McBride, who recommended she sign her daughter up for the Explorer Bear's class.

As Templeton stood along the edge of Higgins Gymnasium on that icy Thursday afternoon, she watched her daughter run and play with McBride and other children her age. She balanced on the balance beam. She somersaulted. She jumped on the trampoline.

"Look at her moving those legs," Templeton said. Her heart seemed to swell up. "This is why we need Marisa."

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