Brooklyn Littleton looks intently at the woman dressed as a bat who is painting her face. She fills her bucket with candy from the trunks of decorated vehicles. She soaks up the atmosphere as she and her mom visit dozens of candy-giving, fun-making stations set up inside the pavilion at the Habersham County Fairgrounds.
Here, Brooklyn is like all of the other kids all over the globe enjoying fall festivals with their families and friends. The wheels on her chair don’t hold her back; they’re part of her costume. She’s dressed as the cowgirl from her favorite movie, Walk. Ride. Rodeo.
“The girl in the movie is in a wheelchair,” explains Brooklyn’s mom Jennifer.
That sense of connection is vital to the Littletons and special needs families, in general. Seeing themselves reflected in others brings a sense of normalcy – of not-so-aloneness – to their sometimes lonely, often challenging lives.
“It’s wonderful,” says Jennifer Littleton as she looks out over the 80 or so trick-or-treaters who turned out on October 19 for the 2nd Annual Trunk-Or-Treat for Special Needs Families in Clarkesville. “It’s a place that I can go that doesn’t have the crowds, and that understands when I pull up to the front door to get the wheelchair out in the pouring down rain.”
Understanding is what compelled Rhonda Stamey to launch this event two years ago.
Stamey’s son Nate is autistic. She understands, as special needs moms do, how difficult it can be to participate in public events. Overstimulation from overly loud crowds, the push and pull and tug of people against walkers and wheelchairs, the stares and comments from insensitive adults and children too young to know better can quickly turn what was intended as a fun family outing into a hellish exercise in endurance, patience, and tongue-biting.
“It helps to know that you are not alone,” she told Now Habersham after last year’s special needs trunk-or-treat event. “Every family has different needs, but at the end of the day, we are all fighting the same battle.”
Events such as this make fighting that battle a little easier, but unfortunately, they’re rare. Perhaps that explains why special needs families from so many different places attend. This year’s event drew people from counties across Northeast Georgia, including Habersham, Banks, Franklin, and Stephens, as well as South Carolina.
Despite the rainy, cold weather that Tropical Storm Nestor ushered in over the weekend, Stamey says, “It went great! There were smiles all around.” Now recovering from months of planning, Stamey reflects on those who played a part in putting those smiles there. “I would like to thank every single person who volunteered to decorate their vehicle or who donated candy and cakes,” she says. “We couldn’t pull this off without the generous people of this community.”
Jessica Goulding expresses her gratitude in a post to Now Habersham’s Facebook page. Goulding writes, “This is an amazing event. Thank you to all of those that participated. You gave our little ladybug a safe place to trick or treat at her own pace!”
As for Brooklyn, this wasn’t her first rodeo; she came dressed as a princess last year. She now has a year to pick out her next costume because Stamey says the event will be back again in 2020.
2019 Trunk-Or-Treat for Special Needs Families
Saturday, Oct. 19, 2019
Habersham County Fairgrounds • Clarkesville, Georgia
photos by Daniel Purcell
(click photos to enlarge)
