Latham School Awarded $25,000 Grant by the Yawkey Foundation II for Adaptive Playground Project
Press Release
Latham Centers, Inc., a Cape Cod based not-for-profit serving children and adults with emotional, developmental and physical disabilities today announced that it has been awarded a $25,000 grant by the Yawkey Foundation II. The grant is restricted toward the purchase and installation of adaptive playground equipment on the grounds of Latham School in Brewster, Massachusetts. With this recent award, the playground will be fully installed and operational later this spring in memory of the late Tim Semple—the former Director of Latham Facilities..
The playground was specially designed to improve perceptual-motor skills, spatial awareness, and gross motor skill development of the Latham School special needs population. It will also assist students in training for the Special Olympics as members of the “Latham Hawks” athletic team. The Yawkey Foundation II has supported multiple Latham programs and initiatives since 2001—most recently Latham’s innovative Asinotherapy program and the construction of a new dormitory at the Brewster residential children’s campus.
“The addition of an adaptive playground to the Latham School curriculum will encourage team-building activities, leadership, communication and positive interactions among students,” according to Anne McManus, Executive Director. “Moreover, the playground will serve to build strength, endurance, and agility with specialized equipment as our children train for team sports in Special Olympics.”
Previous major grants for the project funded the installment of a high-tech, playground turf by The Ronald McDonald House Charities of Eastern New England, Inc., The Palmer and Jane D. Davenport Foundation, and other individual donors.
More about Yawkey Foundation II
In 1982, Mrs. Jean Yawkey established Yawkey Foundation II to carefully ensure the legacy of giving that she and her husband Tom began as owners of the Boston Red Sox. Through her direct involvement and active leadership for the last decade of her life, Mrs. Yawkey imprinted the Foundation with her own highly personal style of giving. Like her husband, Mrs. Yawkey cared deeply for the people who lived and worked in the communities that she called home and sought to use her Foundation to help improve the lives of those in need.
In 2002, Yawkey Foundation II experienced a dramatic expansion of its assets from the record-breaking proceeds received from the sale of the Yawkey ownership interest in the Boston Red Sox. The Trustees of Yawkey Foundation II have sought to emulate the Yawkeys’ tradition of giving in the areas of Education, Health Care, Human Services, Youth and Amateur Athletics, Arts and Culture, and Conservation and Wildlife.
Contributed by:
Gerry Desautels (Dez-oh-tel), M.Ed.
Director of Development