Wanted: Home for Sports for Special Needs Kids

A nonprofit group whose mission is to provide sports and team activities for kids with special needs is looking for a home in southwest St. Louis County.

The group is called TASK and offers non-competitive team sports and fitness activities that boost self-esteem and teach life skills such as teamwork.

TASK’s annual two-week sports camp was held at St. Elizabeth of Hungary in Crestwood last week, offering sports, drama, cooking, and arts and crafts.

Since its beginning in 1996, TASK (Team Activities for Special Kids) has grown from a single T-ball program involving 26 kids to serving 800 youth in more than a dozen different sports at rented fields and gymnasiums throughout south and west St. Louis County.

“We’re hoping to build our own spot to expand and not constantly be worrying about whether we can we get the gym for another two hours,” said Deb Fruend, founder and executive director. “We want to have the ability and freedom to add what the kids need.”

Fruend, an adaptive physical education teacher for the Special School District in Mehlville, started the program after hearing from many parents that their special needs children weren’t getting the kind of sports instruction that their classmates were getting.

“They wanted to belong to a league like their brothers and sisters,” said Fruend, 52, of Affton. “They wanted a T-shirt. They wanted a trophy.”

TASK now offers sports and activities from basketball to bowling, golf, kickball, karate and volleyball. Every athlete gets a team T-shirt and an award at the end of the season. Along they wait, they learn and practice important life skills, Fruend said.

"They're learning how to be a friend, how to be a teammate, sharing, taking turns," she said. "Some of them, I know, become friends because of TASK."

Fruend and some 200 volunteers who make TASK happen are dreaming of a flat, five-acre or more site somewhere near the intersection of Interstates 44 and 270.

They have launched a $3.5 million capital campaign and have drawn up architectural plans so that once a property is found they can build or renovate an accessible activity center with room for outdoor fields, basketball courts, a stage, a fitness room, dance studio, kitchen facilities, multi-purpose rooms, office space and more.

A central location would allow TASK to expand and improve programming without increasing rent that is now paid for space in gymnasiums and soccer fields around the area, she said.

Fruend believes TASK could serve as many as 5,000 youth with physical, mental and emotional challenges each year, as well as offer opportunities for adults with special needs to socialize and stay fit.

Through donations and pledges, TASK is about halfway to its goal. The program got a big boost recently when it was named the title charity of the inaugural Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon and Half Marathon in St. Louis in October. More than 15,000 runners are expected to take part in the event, which is being sponsored by Solutia Inc., a Town and Country-based chemical manufacturer.

Fruend said that of the more than 260 runners on the “TASK Force” team, made up of runners who pledged to raise at least $1,500 each, more than 200 are Solutia employees.

On Thursday, about 20 Solutia employees were on hand volunteering at TASK’s annual sports camp, held at St. Elizabeth of Hungary in Crestwood. TASK offers sports, drama, cooking, and arts and crafts. About 100 volunteers, many of them high school and college students, help run the camps.