Photo by Erin Nelson.
Lindley Sweat, 8, makes arts and crafts on Carnival Day at the Exceptional Foundation in downtown Homewood.
The Exceptional Foundation has been in its current home on Oxmoor Road for 20 years, since a capital campaign to build the building in 1999. In that time, Vice President of Operations Ginny Bastar said, demand for their services has only risen.
“There’s just always a need,” Bastar said. “People come and go, but more people come than go,” Athletic Director Robbie Lee agreed.
The 26-year-old Exceptional Foundation has been providing recreation and educational opportunities for children and adults with special needs, as well as support for families. Bastar said they average 135 attendees each day during the school year and 275 people enrolled in summer programs, with about 165 attending each day this past summer.
While growth has been a steady incline rather than in sudden spikes, Bastar and Lee said the Exceptional Foundation is continuing to adapt its services to meet that demand.
“We’re always looking for new opportunities. We’re not content to just be happy where we are,” he said.
The youth programs are seeing the greatest increase in demand in recent years, Lee said.
In summer 2018, Lee said they had so many youth summer camp participants that 26 kids ended up on a wait list. This past summer, they added a third camp group to accommodate everyone who was interested. This also divided the campers into elementary, middle and high school groups, rather than letting the middle schoolers decide whether to be part of the younger or older groups.
Photo courtesy of the Exceptional Foundation.
Karl Julian of World Oyama Karate works with an Exceptional Foundation participant in the karate program.
This summer also saw the introduction of a summer karate program with World Oyama Karate, which Lee said has been popular.
“They have loved it and Oyama Karate’s been great to work with,” he said. Molly Grill, a 14-year-old Homewood Middle School student and seven-year Exceptional Foundation attendee, said she has enjoyed learning to punch, kick and block in the karate program. She participates in many programs, including art camp, basketball and dance, but Grill said she enjoys the karate program because “Sensei Karl [Julian] is fun and helps us learn.”
In October, Lee said the Exceptional Foundation is starting a new internet safety program for teens and adults. He has seen internet and social media use increase among participants in the 10 years he has worked with the foundation, and he hopes the new program will help them identify threats online.
“With all the stuff that’s online, all the dangers and the bullying, it goes on and on — our guys are very susceptible to fraud and to bullying. We’ve heard from parents and we’ve just seen first hand the need for our guys to be educated in how to navigate social media safely, how to identify potential threats,” Lee said.
These new programs join Exceptional Foundation staples like art, dance, karaoke, movie nights, after-school camps, the fitness and nutrition program and Aktion Club, which works with the Homewood-Mountain Brook Kiwanis Club. On the athletic side, they offer basketball, golf, tennis, volleyball, softball, bowling, track and field and swimming, with competitive teams in some sports.
“We’re very proud to be the only organization in the state that offers an inclusive basketball rec league for anyone,” Lee said, adding that their three recreational leagues offer the chance for around 80 people to play, rather than the top 10 that usually make up a Special Olympics team.
The more programs they have, the more public interest they receive, Lee said.
Despite ongoing enrollment increases, Bastar said their facility, next to the Homewood Community Center, has the space to meet their needs for the near future. The most recent addition, the Jay Harbert Youth Center in 2015, gave the Exceptional Foundation much more room for its programs, and they’re considering putting a partition in the foundation’s storm shelter to make that room more flexible.
Photo courtesy of Bryan Johnson Studio, via the Exceptional Foundation.
Seth, Ethan and Greg, three Exceptional Foundation participants.
As with all nonprofits, Bastar said the Exceptional Foundation staff is always looking for financial support from the surrounding communities, including annual budget donations from cities like Homewood and private donors. The fees charged to the families of participants make up a third or less of the foundation’s annual budget, Bastar said.
“Keeping the costs affordable for our parents and families really puts the onus on the rest of us to come up with the money,” she said.
The foundation’s two biggest fundraisers are the Chili Cookoff in March and Dinnertainment, where foundation participants get to perform for a dinner audience, in September. Both see continually high attendance, and Lee said Dinnertainment is “sold out before it’s even planned.”
However, Bastar said they continue to look for grant opportunities and new ideas to fundraise to meet future demand.
After 20 years in Homewood, Lee said the foundation still receives calls from parents who don’t know what services are available to them. Alongside fundraising and new programs, he said raising awareness will be equally important for the Exceptional Foundation’s future.
“Whether or not your child comes here, we want everyone to know that we are an option and we are here and what we do,” Lee said. “… I think this place should be such a point of pride.”
Learn more about the Exceptional Foundation at exceptionalfoundation.org.
