The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
A township-based foundation made the wishes of a number of Claremont Elementary School teachers come true October 28 with the donation of $7,100 worth of sensory teaching aids.
The supplies, donated by the Triple B Foundation, will be used in the school’s neurodivergent program in grades Pre-K to 6, said vice-principal Angela Pape.
The supplies were on teachers’ “wish lists,” which were submitted to the Foundation for fulfillment, Pape said.
“It’s to help with their sensory needs,” Pape said. “So there’s different fidgets, there’s different balance boards, stepping stones to help with proprioceptive activities.”
Proprioception is a sense that lets us perceive the location and movements of our body parts, according to ScienceDirect.com.
Also donated were calming supplies, timers, kinetic sand, and sensory tables to put the sand or water in, Pape said.
The Foundation was formed by two siblings, Makeda Fryson and her brother, Kwame Breedy, and gets its name from the matriarchs of their family.
“BBB stands for the matriarchs of our family,” Fryson said. “My grandmother, Charlotte Bayley; my mom, Jenny Breedy, and my aunt, Cecily Barrington.
The Foundation’s mission, she said, “is really to just tap into our communities, specifically for our neurodivergent students, our elderly, anyone in our community that is in need.”
“We grew up here, we went through our entire education here,” she said. “Our goal was to give back, because that was the goal of my grandmother, Charlotte Bailey. And so because of that, we just wanted to make sure that we achieve this mission.”
Fryson said she was a substitute teacher at Claremont, so she knew first-hand the needs of the students in that program.
“And these students here, just based on my own personal experience, I was able to see first-hand what it is when they are able to have access to certain resources,” she said. “Let’s give them what they needed there, and then we’ll build from that and grow. So we’re excited to see where this goes from here, and we’re hoping that people will see the good that we’re trying to do, hopefully donate to our foundation and allow us to have a much larger impact and reach.”
This isn’t the first time the Foundation has offered a helping hand, but this donation is the largest, Fryson said.
Working in conjunction with the Franklin Youth Center, the Foundation has contributed to the Center’s Medley March Madness program, and also awarded four scholarships to students enrolled in the Youth center, she said.
“But this was our biggest, the one that we are just so excited to be able to unveil and present,” Fryson said. “And we want to be able to do that to other schools in the district once we understand what the needs are and how we can again be most impactful.”
Her brother, Kwame Breedy, said he was inspired to join his sister by their grandmother.
“Just following in her footsteps, the values she instilled in us and just making an impact in the community and hopefully we can receive donations and get the guidance from what people need and pass it forward,” he said.
