Halloween festival supports inclusive playground

Buddy Abrams really wants to use Mr. B’s Playground. The problem is, it hasn’t been built yet. The 7-year-old has become an advocate for the inclusive playground — in the works for years — and will continue his efforts this weekend as Grand Goblin of the Halloween Fun Festival.

For the fifth year, the festival returns to Madison Theatre at Molloy College on Saturday, offering a range of activities for children, from pumpkin painting and cupcake decorating to a haunted house and a princess sing-along. The annual event raises money for the Rockville Centre Lions Club and Mr. B’s Playground.

About $750,000 has been raised for the playground so far, according to Joan MacNaughton, immediate past president of the Lions, with the project about $500,000 shy of the goal. The club, MacNaughton explained, decided to name Buddy the Grand Goblin because, as a child with special needs, he has been enthusiastic about the project since he learned about it last spring.

“He’s like an ambassador for us, and for the playground,” MacNaughton said, “which he is so supportive of and really wants to be able to play on.”

When Buddy was an infant, a tumor was discovered in his brain stem. Since then, he has undergone two brain surgeries and five years of chemotherapy. Despite living with Stage 4 brain cancer, Buddy is outgoing, according to his mother, Wendy Abrams, and was able to stand on a stage and speak about the playground to a crowd of 200 people at last spring’s Laughing with the Lions fundraiser.

Buddy went from being immobile to now being able to walk on his own, with orthotics, though he still has some balance issues, according to his mother. As a result, there are many activities he cannot do at a regular playground. Mr. B’s, on the other hand, would have equipment for children with wheelchairs and balance problems, so they could play without fear of getting hurt. The playground is named for longtime Recreation Superintendent Anthony Brunetta, known as Mr. B, who died in 2016, and is to be built next to the John A. Anderson Recreation Center.

The hope is that the playground project comes to fruition sooner rather than later. As Abrams noted, her son will turn 8 next spring.

“There comes a point when a child gets too old for the playground,” she said.

In addition to raising money for Mr. B’s, a portion of the festival proceeds will go to the Lions Club, which also supports the playground. The club was dubbed “The Knights of the Blind” by Helen Keller for its mission to fight blindness and provide vision screenings and eye care services to those at risk of losing their sight. To help raise money, a new activity will be added to the Halloween festival this year.

Rockville Centre resident Ted Fass, founder of the Long Island Bombers, a blind baseball team, is looking forward to bringing his team to the festival for the first time. The Bombers are one of 30 teams that compete throughout the United States in the National Beep Baseball Association, providing blind and visually impaired athletes the opportunity to play the game and offering a support network to members. The Bombers now have 12 players and four volunteers, including spotters and pitchers who have sight.

During the festival, the team will organize a special game incorporating attendees into a version of blind baseball: Participants will pay a donation to wear a blindfold and try to hit the ball. Fass said that batters who strike out may remove the blindfold and swing again. “We want people to have fun,” he said, “and we want them to hit the ball and run to base.”

The players must be blindfolded while running to a base. There is another twist: There are only two bases, first and third, and simulating how the Bombers play, each base is four feet high, made out of foam and equipped with a buzzer. Someone behind home plate operates the equipment and decides which one to buzz. Players must run for the base that buzzes.

“The batter needs to hit, then listen, and then run to base,” Fass said. “It’s challenging, but a lot of fun.”

Other activities throughout the day include trick-or-treating, bounce houses, mask making, a caramel apple factory and a dance performance from Leggz Ltd.

“It’s a great grouping of people coming together with the goal of building this playground,” MacNaughton said.

The Halloween Fun Festival runs from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and costs $20 per child. The rain date is Sunday.