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WARRINGTON – Anna Knauss was having a blast.
Whether she was playing balloon volleyball or listening attentively while a station leader explained a drill, Knauss was enjoying every minute of her night at the carnival held recently in the gymnasium at Central Bucks South High School.
This wasn’t just any carnival. This one – put on by Central Bucks South’s soccer team in conjunction with the Hopes and Dreams Foundation - was special.
So special that Anna’s mother, Andrea, opted to attend even though she was in considerable pain and received word earlier that day that she had fractured ribs.
“That’s how important these events are,” she said. “Anna will talk about it every day – we’re going to the carnival, or we’re going here with Special Olympics.
“To have these opportunities - we used to live in Philadelphia, and when we came here, I told everybody I felt like we went to Oz. We’re here five years, and people ask me, ‘So you still feel like you’re in Oz?’ Yes, I do. Every year, every month, every day.”
Hopes and Dreams Foundation is the brainchild of Tina Pisch, a life skills teacher at Hillcrest Elementary School in the Council Rock North School District.
“I had a lot of these students in elementary school, and when they graduated to middle school, I started to see there was a need for more socialization outside of school,” she said. “The Special Olympics does a lot in fitness and sports, but we also took the socialization part - the arts, the music and the drama part of it.”
Talk to anyone associated with the Hopes and Dreams Foundation, and it’s clear – this is an idea whose time has come.
“They’re definitely angels,” Knauss said of Pisch and her mother Sharon, who works closely with her daughter. “The love, the fun, the activities they give to these kids – I can’t say enough. Look how happy she (Anna) is.”
There was plenty of happiness to go around, and it wasn’t just the special needs athletes who were enjoying themselves.
“I love it,” South senior Sarah Hasson said. “Honestly, it just makes me feel so good. It’s a great way to start off the season – the whole team getting together and helping out.
“I’ve been setting up (bowling) pins. When they knock them over, it’s high fives all around. You have a blast.”
Not far away, teammate Samantha Wood was laughing and having a good time with Gabriel, who is deaf.
“It was twice as hard because I didn’t know how to sign, but it was really cool to use expressions instead of words,” Wood said. “We’re having so much fun.
“Anybody could have a special need. You need to treat people basically the same way. They’re the same as anybody else. They’re happy about everything.”
And if there’s a difference, that might be it. These young people derive happiness from the smallest things.
“I work with Special Olympics in my free time, and it develops your own character along with theirs,” senior Meredith Fox said. “When I first got involved, I was like, ‘I feel so bad.’
“Now I’m happy about how happy they are in the world. They’re the happiest people out there. They find joy in everything, which is awesome.”
South soccer coach Joe Bocklet acknowledged that holding the carnival was a no-brainer.
“We have the facilities,” he said. “It would be a waste not to give back this way.
“As a coach, I think it’s important for my players to see that this is important to me. We focus a lot on winning games and trying to win state titles, but when it comes down to it, it’s more important for us to care for one another.”
And never was that caring more apparent than at a carnival that brought smiles to everyone’s faces.
Senior Ashley McKenna had a familiarity with sign language, and she was enjoying using some of her knowledge as she communicated with Gabriel.
“I can figure some of it out, and you also can use your hands and expressions (to communicate),” she said. “He gets really excited when he finally understands.
“I love this. It’s such a great experience getting to interact with all these kids. It’s all new, and that’s why they love it. They’re amazed by all of it.”
According to Jose Rodriguez, whose daughter Alissa was enjoying the carnival, providing the opportunity for students to work with the special needs children is vitally important.
“I wish I would have had exposure when I was growing up in this kind of way because it teaches them a lot,” he said. “The kids with disabilities aren’t different. They just have different abilities.
“The education for (the students) is huge. It’s something they can share with their peers. Maybe they will be more open-minded and be willing to help kids instead of looking at them and being afraid because of the unknown. They will be open to help them or befriend them instead of looking at them like they’re different.”
“There’s no differential,” Andrea Knauss said. “They’re regular kids, and they are with regular kids. I don’t say disabilities, I say different abilities. People find out when you go into the special needs world, the children are more alike than they are different.
“Anna’s not a Down’s Syndrome girl. She’s a teenager with a boyfriend…that cheats on her.”
Knauss smiled at the ‘realness’ of her daughter’s life
“To have a special child, I felt very blessed,” she said. “If we could only help the rest of the world to see the beauty and joy that our kids see.
“When everybody is together, they don’t see any differences. They’re just alive and happy with no filters. I feel so blessed after I leave that I can be part of the program. There’s an awful lot of love here, and it’s very obvious, and we’re the benefactors of their great big hearts.”
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