Kenton and Friends Inclusive Playground: An Exclusive Interview
By Cody Morris
Today, Butler opened a brand new park! This new park is aptly named The Kenton and Friends Inclusive Park. This week, Mid America caught up with Jesse Schowengerdt and learned some more about this new park in an exclusive interview.
The need for this park for our community seemed massive as Jesse tells Mid America that currently the closest park to us of this kind is located in Clinton Missouri. The park is billed to have massive advantages for the local communities. Jesse says, “it is our hope that the sensory park will serve to give children with special needs, disabilities and children on all levels of the spectrum a place where they can play in an environment where they feel safe and where the play equipment is designed to be inclusive regardless of ability. We hope to give parents and educators of children a special place where they can see their child/student thrive and play just like any other child.”
While the Kenton and Friends park is celebrating its grand opening today, the park has been in the works for about 4 years now, as the idea was first pitched to Butler City Council by Jesse in 2019. Jesse told Mid America that the city was receptive to the idea, “however, I was kind of a one man show and didn’t have the networking support to go through with the idea so it fizzled.” But Kenton (Jesse’s son, who the park was named after), would go on to make connections that would further the progress of the park, “it was also during this time period that my son Kenton attended Rotary with me every Wednesday. It was there that he began a friendship with the city clerk, Corey Snead. Over time, they both developed a bond. Corey had heard about my proposal years earlier from a city council member and approached me with reviving the idea with more supportive people.” Jesse continued to speak about how instrumental the bond between Kenton and Corey was in the advancement of the park, “Corey encouraged me to form a committee of volunteers with varying life experiences to help. The committee consisted of citizens, special needs educators, special need caretakers, special need parents, park board members and city council members.”
With the blossoming relationship between Corey and Kenton, the idea of an inclusive park began to make some headway again. Schowengerdt went on to say, “with Corey piloting, we started looking into sensory play equipment manufactures and discussed potential locations for the park. Once we had our idea on paper, we presented our vision to the city council as well as the park board. We had the greatest support on both sides.
The overwhelming support we received from the City of Butler, Butler City Council, Butler Parks and Rec as well as the Butler Public Works made this possible. The name for this park, Kenton and Friends Inclusive Playground, was aptly named for the young man this vision started with. However, it will be dedicated to provide ALL children with special needs and disabilities in the community a place for inclusive play.”
With a project of this nature, it takes the whole community to make this idea a reality, Jesse is proud of the efforts of many inside of Bates County and beyond that have been involved in this project. Jesse tells us, “I have heard nothing but support from the community, boards and everyone involved. The community has been wonderful and very supportive.” It wasn’t just those who had happy thoughts and words for this project, but there was an innumerable amount of individuals and organizations that took initiative and stepped up to make this happen. “First there were the initial members of the committee that helped in design, planning and spreading the word. Secondly, the Butler City Council and the Butler Parks and Rec Board were so instrumental in pushing this forward. Also the City of Butler Public Works helped with labor and prep of the park but will also be in charge of maintaining the park. Solar Shade USA was a great help in providing shade to the park to have a cool resting place. Jim Herrell was a blessing.
He helped with the labor of the concrete and donated much of his time and time of his crew. I must give a lot of credit to Corey Snead, the Butler City Clerk. Through his connection with my son, Kenton, it became his mission to get this sensory park done for not only the City of Butler but the surrounding communities. Corey was instrumental in securing funding, gaining approval from the city and the other governing boards. Corey has been the leader and biggest cheerleader for this project and it wouldn’t have been possible without him,” Jesse states.
We asked to share more about Kenton, who was the inspiration for the project, Jesse had plenty to share. “I could write a whole entire newspaper about this special young man but I will keep it short. Kenton was born a healthy little boy with no pregnancy complications. However, as he quickly grew our family noticed some things were different. Kenton never passed any of his developmental milestones like his peers and he wasn’t making age appropriate speech sounds or words at a certain age. We enrolled him in a program called “Missouri First Steps.” It was here that we began our initial therapies with him—speech, occupational and physical therapy. His Missouri First Steps caregivers were concerned that he was on the spectrum and encouraged us to look about an official diagnosis. We took him to Children’s Mercy Hospital where they did indeed diagnose him with ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder). Once Kenton had been diagnosed, we made it our mission to get him the help that he needed. We began sharing Kenton’s journey through social media—his successes and his struggles. We used social media as a platform to promote awareness, educate and to build an inclusive community for him to live in. Through grade school, he continued to receive therapy through Butler Elementary. In 2022, we enrolled him in a special school called SOS (Success On the Spectrum).
He attends 3 days a week at SOS and 2 days a week at Butler Elementary. SOS is a school for special needs children and children on the spectrum. Its focus is to help build life skills and behavior for successful integration into society. Their primary goal is to give children the best chance to be independent, socially successful and self-sufficient. I would describe Kenton as atypical when comparing him to most on the spectrum. He doesn’t mind physical affection, engages in conversation with others, plays well with his peers, understands emotions, etc. He has a phenomenal memory—a photographic memory to be candid.
He still struggles with speech and motor skills and sometimes appropriate social behavior. Fast forward to today--Kenton is growing incredibly. He continues to make strides everyday. He has many obstacles to still overcome, but we are incredibly thankful to his educators and this supportive community.”
To conclude our time, Mid America asked Jesse what this park was going to mean to our community and what his vision was moving forward, and what he would like to see in the future, to which Jesse replied, “This sensory park is a really big deal for a community of our size. Most major metropolitan cities have multiple parks of this nature but their funding and access to finances leave smaller, rural areas unable to compete.
The park has plans in the future for growth and expansion. If you are an individual or a business that would like to donate to further this cause, we would welcome your participation. If you’ve never been to a sensory, inclusive park we welcome you to visit ours.”
We are excited about the new park in Butler, and after speaking to Jesse and hearing his passion, our excitement only grew for this new development! If you have a chance, go check out Kenton and Friends Inclusive Park located at the corner of Delaware and Mill Street!
