PARKER, Colo. — Each year, the Chaparral High School volleyball team chooses a local organization to support with a fundraiser. This year, they picked a cause close to home.
“The Chaparral volleyball program chooses a cause every year that we want to support. And this year, we chose to support the special needs department at Chaparral High School. We have a student, she works with them day in and day out,” said head coach Amanda West.
Junior Kai Kofoed-Cooke has a personal experience with the department.
“My role with the SSN (Significant Support Needs) kids is I go in almost every day during the week during their school day and I help them learn. I help them with their schoolwork. I help them kind of with their life skills. I choose to work with the SSN kids because really it makes me feel happier,” said Kofoed-Cooke.
The school held events to raise money for the program, with a volleyball game capping off the fundraiser.
Kofoed-Cooke said she does what she does because of kids like Brody, a fellow athlete.
Brody is enrolled in the Significant Support Needs (SSN) program and participates in wiffleball through Unified Sports, a program where students with disabilities play alongside students who volunteer as partners, according to The Denver Post.
“Brody is a character. He loves everyone fiercely. He's a friend to everyone. He's an athlete. He's a brother. He's the best son," said Brody's mother, Kaci Wilson. "This is his third year — he started as a freshman here at Chaparral. It filled a void for him because he's a huge sports fan and he's no longer able to play through recreational sports and things like that because of his epilepsy and how it's progressed. So Unified and the SSN program allows him to be able to still do things he loves but just at a different level,” said Wilson.
Chaparral won Tuesday's volleyball match and raised roughly $3,000 for the school’s SSN program
