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Ability Garden helps fill summer therapy gap for local kids

Sarah Kuschell and ability garden program members
Claire Keenan-Kurgan
/
IPR News
Sarah Kuschell harvests cucumbers with Ability Garden program members (Photo: Claire Keenan-Kurgan/IPR)

Tucked behind Traverse City’s main library branch, on the banks of Boardman Lake, sits the Grand Traverse Area Children’s Garden.

Every Sunday, members of a program called the Ability Garden meet up at the garden’s gazebo. It’s a gardening program designed for children and teenagers with various neurological and physical disabilities. When school is out for the summer, it can be harder for kids and their families to find services like physical and occupational therapy that they usually get in their classrooms.

That’s the gap this program at the children’s garden is trying to fill. Sarah Kuschell, executive director of the Grand Traverse Area Children’s Garden, said that four years ago, their staff realized a lot of kids were missing out on the community and services they have at school. “We knew that this space could offer some consistency during the summer, when they didn’t have it,” she said.

The program is sponsored by Munson Medical Center, Children’s Therapy Corner, and Inspire Autism. One therapist comes to the garden every Sunday, and together they “use therapy skills to hone in on garden knowledge, and beyond,” said Kuschell.

Each member of the Ability Garden program has their own area of the garden to tend to. Some garden beds are raised to the right height for children in wheelchairs.

The garden's programs are all "roots to mouth," Kuschell said, meaning the kids are encouraged to try the food they grow, straight from the soil. “One of the miracles that I see is that kids try green food for the first time,” Kuschell said. "It happens with this program every year."

Parent Traci Partman has enrolled her 11-year-old daughter, Bella, in the program for the past three summers. "It's teaching them about connecting with their world,” she said. “Doing it in this actual, real life setting is way more meaningful for them than learning about this stuff in a textbook at school.”

Michael O’Connor, the occupational therapist volunteering at the program on July 14, said gardening itself can be a form of occupational therapy. “It’s meaningful, purposeful activity,” he said. “And that’s what O.T. is about.”

Last Sunday, the Ability Garden program ended with a releasing a butterfly. As Kuschell gets ready to set the butterfly free, the group took a few moments to discuss what to name it.

The name they settled on was “Mason Jr.,” named after the garden’s summer intern, Mason. Its last name? — “Moana,” after the Disney film.