Playing it Forward: Midway Student Collects Donations for Special Education Program at Quinceañera

While most people look forward to gifts on their birthday, one Midway High School student chose to use her quinceañera as an opportunity to give back. Instead of gifts, sophomore Julie Denny asked friends and family to bring donations for the special needs students she works with at school, calling it “Project FRIENDS at PLAY.”

“I am very passionate about working with our special needs community,” Julie said. “I get to work with them in a couple of my classes at Midway High School, and I also volunteer at different events throughout the district and community.”

Julie is part of the Partners P.E. program at Midway High School which pairs general education students with students who have special needs to plan tailored activities and play games during their P.E. class. Julie saw the need for additional equipment in the class and decided to start Project FRIENDS at PLAY to collect new gym and P.E. equipment.

Donations from Julie’s service project were collected for her quinceañera in June and presented to students in the Partners P.E. class during the first week of school.

“This was such a fun and rewarding project to plan,” Julie’s mom Maritza Denny said, “Project FRIENDS at PLAY gave everyone who donated such joy, and it’s even more special to us personally because Julie’s two younger siblings are in the special education program at Midway.”

Julie and her family used an Amazon Gift List to let people know what items were needed. Maritza Denny said donations were sent from family and friends as far away as Georgia and Arizona as well as south Texas, and several of the local donations were also made by teachers or therapists who taught Julia and her younger siblings.

“We definitely felt the love pouring in from all our loved ones,” Maritza Denny said. “We were all so excited to receive a donation delivery and so grateful that this cause is so widely supported. Nearly every item on the gift list was purchased!”

Some of the new equipment that is now being enjoyed in Partners P.E. includes balls, hula hoops, a portable soccer net, a parachute, jump ropes, bean bags, and hopscotch games.

“I am so proud of Julie and her family for single-handedly seeing a need and taking on this mission,” Kim Johnson, Midway Special Populations transition specialist, said. “To celebrate her quinceañera, instead of gifts for herself, she chose to make it possible for people to give to the Partners P.E. Program.”