As communities across Texoma celebrate the festival season, Sherman is making sure that all residents can have a moment of fall fun. This weekend, Sherman Parks and Recreation will host its annual Special Needs Fall Festival and feature activities aimed at children with special needs and their families.
This is the third year for the festival, which will be held from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m. at the Sherman Municipal Building at 405 N. Rusk Street.
“It is a low sensory fall festival designed specifically for kids, especially, and their families,” Sherman Recreation Coordinator Dylan Johnson said. “We will have games and prizes like you would typically see at your normal fall festivals. We will just kind of keep the lights down and the music down and really try to be sensitive for the kids with light or sound sensitivity.”
The event will be designed to look and feel like many of the other festivals that take place throughout the region this time of year. However, it will be modified to take needs, including sensory issues, into consideration. Volunteers will host carnival-style games and a petting zoo, among other activities. The event will be capped off by a hotdog lunch, Johnson said.
The idea for the festival came a few years ago when the department was looking for ways to expand its programming to additional audiences. At the time, officials came up with a few ideas of events that could appeal to children with sensory needs.
“This is one of the first activities that we planned really geared toward meeting that need,” Johnson said. “Since then, we have tried adding a couple different activities really just to promote activities for all people in Sherman and the county as well.”
“The whole goal, the idea is giving families with kids with special needs the opportunity to feel normal and have a place dedicated specifically for them that’s not loud and overwhelming,” he continued. “Even I get overwhelmed at some of these places.”
Johnson said the festival coincides with multiple other festivals across the region. While not directly designed to counter these festivals, it can serve as an alternative for those looking to avoid loud environments and crowds.
“We don’t want to discourage anyone from participating in any of those other activities; we think that they are all great,” he said. “This really is a supplement to those to where it is a much lower key atmosphere so that if the crowds and everything are too much for some of these people there is still an option for them.”
During the festival’s first year, it attracted about 50 attendees. However, attendance doubled the following year with 120 attendees. However, Johnson said high attendance is not the goal for the event.
“We understand that, especially after talking to some of these families there, that there is a need to offer things and that these kids don’t always have the opportunities,” he said.
