 John B. Codington Elementary School Playground  Partners, David Kirby and Mark Holt at ribbon cutting ceremony |
The playground was dedicated at John B. Codington Elementary School in Wilmington. The gift, which represented most of the money needed to build the playground, was to honor Morgan King, a Kirby & Holt disabled client who attends the school.
With the new playground, for the first time, students in wheelchairs or with other disabilities are able to swing on swings, slide on a slide or ride a merry-go-round alongside able-bodied students. The Codington Elementary adaptive playground is a first in New Hanover County – either at a school or a park.
The playground was the initiative of Mary Beth King, a Wilmington mother whose daughter, Morgan King, a student at the school, is disabled from cerebral palsy. Kirby & Holt represented Morgan and her parents in a lawsuit over the injuries Morgan received during birth.
Morgan had been cared for at the United Cerebral Palsy Center in Wilmington, which has a specially adapted, but private, playground. When Morgan began as a student at Codington Elementary, Mary Beth was disappointed to find her daughter couldn’t use her new school’s playground because it lacked the equipment needed for disabled students.
New facilities at the playground include a merry go round that can be used by the disabled; a climbing structure; a slide that can be used by the disabled; swings including swings that can be used by wheelchair-bound or disabled students; picnic tables that are accessible for the wheelchairs and a music table.
Covington Elementary has more than 20 disabled students at the school who will be able to use the facilities, and students from across the county are expected to take advantage of the playground.
David Kirby, Mary Beth King,
Mark Holt and Morgan King
