By Jacob Chang
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singing, dancing and games within a plastic bubble that students and preschoolers could stand inside.
On April 24, students from the Associated Students of Mililani High School (ASMHS) and the Early Childhood Development classes participated in an annual playday at Mililani District Park with public preschool students from around the island in an event coordinated by Special Olympics Hawaii.
“It was really an honor to work with (the kids) and to see how much energy they did have and I really like working with kids just to see how happy they were that they were able to get out there and play games,” said Early Childhood Development student Senior Laura Ambrosecchio, “Because we were interested in teaching our own classes and some students want to go into early childhood education, it was good to get hands-on experience with preschool-aged children to kind of know what you need to do with them.”
The district playday was an event coordinated between Special Olympics Hawaii and the Department of Education in an attempt to bring students from around the island together to work with children and to get involved in the community. High school students from Radford, Aiea, Moanalua, Waialua, Leilehua and Mililani came to participate and interact with the kids.
With the small amount of public preschools on Oahu only accepting disabled students, the students are offered many opportunities and care that they might not experience elsewhere. “A lot of times we don’t really pay attention to the people who have disabilities and we overlook them and the purpose of this was to stop the spreading of the word retarded because it’s usually seen as something to laugh about, but it’s not,” said ASMHS President Senior Kaycee Oyama. Student Activities Coordinator Janet Ward-Riehle added, “The big campaign message this year was ‘Spread the word to end the word,’ which (was that) they’re trying to get people to understand that the ‘r’ word (retarded), isn’t well taken and doesn’t sit well.”
This year’s theme was ‘Commotion in the Ocean’ and over 250 preschoolers and high school students alike got the chance to participate in ocean-themed exercises and games. “So all the games had to do with ocean creatures or shells or sand or fish and dolphins, so they all had some theme to it,” said Ward-Riehle.
Student felt that the playday gave them the chance to work directly with members of the community and contribute to the improvement of conditions and treatment of disabled students. “I think (we) got a lot out of it, spending time with the kids and they’re always really happy so it’s fun to see them having fun,” said Oyama.
Although this year’s preschool playday is over, ASMHS and Early Childhood Development look towards teaming up for future projects as well as next year’s playday.
