Photos by Stephanie Klein-Davis | The Roanoke Times

Barbara Bernard, Rocky Mount Elementary School's head custodian, plays with Britni Little on drums Thursday. "People take for granted their kids can play on playgrounds," said Britni's mom, Teresa Little, standing in the background.

Dawn Arrington, a special education assistant at Rocky Mount Elementary School, pushes M.J. Law, 8, back to class along the new sidewalk that links the parking lot to the new playground.

Kali Holt, 7, with a little help from her stepmom, Tracie Holt, tries out the new swing set at Rocky Mount Elementary School.

ROCKY MOUNT -- Teresa Little said she remembers driving past playgrounds and feeling a "twinge of pain and sadness."

"I wondered if I would ever be a playground mom," the Callaway woman said.

Little's daughter Britni, 15, was born with multiple disabilities because of a chromosomal abnormality.

Physical challenges prevented Britni, a student at Benjamin Franklin Middle School, from experiencing the childhood joys of swing sets and sliding boards.

That all changed Thursday with the grand opening of Franklin County's first handicap-accessible playground, built through a collaborative effort that generated more than $75,000 to pay for the project. It was officially designated as the Rocky Mount Rotary Playground For All.

"People take for granted their kids can play on playgrounds," Teresa Little said. "Britni is 15, almost 16, but it doesn't matter -- we all want to play."

Children in wheelchairs, a small girl wearing leg braces and a boy with autism played alongside their peers Thursday morning, many for the first time.

Special education teacher Bobbie Jo Hodges said her students often do not show much of an interest in the playground equipment, other than to be pushed in the swings. The new playground equipment includes visual, auditory and sensory stimulants, which appeal to the children with physical and cognitive challenges. There are bongos, a xylophone and a telescope in the midst of the slides, monkey bars and rope ladder.

"Each of our kids with different disabilities has found something they like to do," Hodges said.

Eight of the 10 students in her class do not communicate verbally but their enthusiasm about the new play equipment was evident in other ways.

Abbey Robbins, 9, has multiple disabilities and communicates with minimal verbal communication, but she giggled with merriment Thursday morning on the playground.

"I have never heard that laugh," Hodges said, beaming. "That is just incredible."

Robbins also tested the rock-climbing wall at the playground, something Hodges said the girl probably would not have tried before or had the opportunity to try.

"This equipment gives them more of an opportunity to be independent," Hodges said.

Funding and constructing the playground were truly a community effort, said A.J. Dudley from the Rocky Mount Rotary Club. Donors ranged from students collecting coins to help from what Dudley called the largest international corporation in Franklin County -- McDonald's. The franchise in Rocky Mount provided breakfast -- Egg McMuffin sandwiches -- on the day of the playground build last month, he said.

Including in-kind donations the cost of the playground exceeded the $75,000 amount. Cash donations exceeded $50,000, including $25,000 from Franklin County and $15,000 from the Rotary Club. The students at Rocky Mount Elementary raised $2,737.

"There were buckets of pennies, quarters, nickels, dimes and dollar bills," Dudley said.

Rocky Mount Elementary was chosen as the site for the new playground because most of the county's elementary-aged children with disabilities attend one of four special education classes there. The students are bused in from all over the county, Hodges said.

Bobby Pruitt, the county's park systems manager, was among a group who worked past midnight Wednesday to put the finishing touches on the wheelchair ramp that adjoins the playground equipment. The crew worked in the glow of headlights to finish the job for Thursday morning's opening ceremony.

"I wish I was a kid again," he said, watching the youngsters romp on the new playground.

Though he declined testing out the slides, Pruitt did admit to taking a spin on the "twirler" with Walter Hughes from the Rotary Club.