More than 500 enjoy Christmas party in Warner Robins for special needs children

WARNER ROBINS -- Jennifer Stackhouse said Saturday's Breakfast with Santa was above and beyond anything she expected.

Stackhouse's 10-year-old son, E.J., is autistic. She said it's rare that she, her husband, Ernest, and their two other children have the opportunity to get out and have fun -- and just relax about it.

Breakfast with Santa was a Christmas party thrown by Warner Robins pediatric therapy clinic SenseAbilities and area church Christ Chapel for about 170 special-needs children.

Including brothers, sisters and other family members, more than 500 people came out to enjoy the free holiday celebration.

"This is just amazing," Stackhouse said of the day. "There's not a lot of things we can go do where people don't look at us like we're crazy because of our kids. They're different and there's always the chance special-needs children may have a meltdown or act out. As parents, it keeps you on edge and you're always worried about them and have to keep a special eye on them. It affects their siblings, too. This was different. Totally different."

Stackhouse and other parents and caregivers at the event said it was more than just the breakfast, bounce house activities, pony rides, crafts, Disney character photo opportunities and chance to sit and talk with Santa and Mrs. Claus that made the day extraordinary.

They said it was the volunteers.

"The buddies and other volunteers gave all of us a sense of being special and taken care of," Stackhouse said. "Not only were our special needs children given one-on-one volunteer attention, but their brothers and sisters got it, too. E.J.'s buddy, Elizabeth (Birchfield), is a teenager and she brought her little brother who's closer to E.J.'s age. They got to be friends."

Stackhouse said one of her greatest pleasures was just being able to stand aside and watch E.J. and her other kids have fun as others kept close watch. She said she and her husband have to be so attentive that they can't really enjoy themselves.

"Oh, my gosh," she said. "There hasn't been anything like this. And it's free. There are so many extra costs when you have a special needs child that there's not much left for doing fun things. This is just awesome. We're so grateful to everyone."

Lisa Hall is one of SenseAbilities' three owners, all of whom have been special-education teachers in Houston County.

She said offering the kids Christmas fun and parents a sense of relaxation was the day's big purpose.

"SenseAbilities not only provides occupational, physical and speech/language therapies for children with special needs, we also offer respite care and parent's nights out. This was that on a big scale. The day-to-day pressures at home for families with special-needs children is enormous, and there's little chance to get away from it. We wanted to provide that chance."

She said SenseAbilities did a similar event last year at its own facility off Arrowhead Trail, but it was nowhere near the scale of this year's. She said the expansion was due to Christ Chapel offering to host the event and not only provide its larger facility on Moody Road, but the bulk of the day's volunteers. The church also organized and provided many of the activities.

Other volunteers came from Veterans High School, SenseAbilities itself and the community at large, including support from the business community through employee volunteers and donations of food, door-prizes, funds and other items.

"We always like to help in the community, and we do a lot of things with schools," said Jake Stewart, division manager for Waffle House. "This has been one of the best experiences ever. It was especially great doing something for these kids and their families because they often get left out of the loop."

Waffle House provided people, waffles and other food for the event's breakfast.

Geraldine Vincent was also at Breakfast with Santa as a volunteer. She's a retired 30-year veteran of in-home day care. She said she grew to love special-needs kids during that time and "just never stopped."

She said now she's a "volunteer grandmother."

"It's so good to see these families out having fun," she said. "It's such a blessing because special needs kids can be difficult to deal with at times, but that doesn't make them any less valuable or mean they and their families shouldn't have wonderful opportunities like this. When you think about it, we all have special needs in one way or another."

Contact writer Michael W. Pannell at mwpannell@gmail.com.

This story was originally published December 16, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "More than 500 enjoy Christmas party in Warner Robins for special needs children ."