Carnival booths, prizes, a DJ and a petting zoo will adorn the north end of the Lakefill on Saturday for Northwestern’s first Development Disability Day.
The event will bring 100 to 150 developmentally disabled children to campus to spend the afternoon with NU students, said Randy Tosch, an Education sophomore who brainstormed the day with Education junior Katie Bienen.
“We don’t really have anyone at NU with developmental disabilities, and we’re going to interact with them in the real world, so why not start now?” Tosch said.
Tosch and Bienen approached Srikanth Reddy, Associated Student Government’s former executive vice president, with the idea several months ago, and the three-person committee soon spawned into a 20-member executive board. The board worked with 23 student organizations including Special Olympics, Natural Ties and Best Buddies in planning the event.
Though the day’s sponsors are mostly philanthropic organizations, the carnival is not a fund-raising event, Tosch said. The event is free, but booths and speakers will be present to let students know about different campus charities.
“I wanted to do something that didn’t involve money at all,” Tosch said. “It would be cool to see people just come, hang out, not worry about donating money, have a good time and help other people have a good time.”
The board hopes the carnival, running 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., will serve as a springboard for raising campus awareness about developmental disabilities through the involvement of different student groups working together, Tosch said.
“Too often at NU, groups don’t plan together,” Tosch said. “We’re trying to set an example for other groups while raising campus awareness about developmental disabilities.”
As its only other event of the year, the board brought a developmentally disabled adult to Norris last night to speak about friendship. Tosch said he hopes these two events will be successful enough to bring the groups that deal with developmental disabilities together for more joint events in the future.
“Special Olympics, Natural Ties and Best Buddies all support the same purpose but never work together,” Tosch said. “It’s been great to see them all come together and put in so much work.”
