Pioneering Parents: Amy Denton, Community Connections
When Amy Denton helped to start Community Connections, a nonprofit that operates sports and activity programs for children with special needs, she got some puzzled looks over the name.
“People wondered why it didn’t mention kids,” says Denton, a Little Rock business owner and pediatric healthcare advocate who has two typically developing children. “It has turned out to be a legitimate name, though. Everything we do has a connection with the community. Churches donate space, people volunteer. Every aspect is teaming up and partnering.”
Denton’s business, Pediatrics Plus, serves therapy clients in Conway, Little Rock, North Little Rock and Russellville. Everywhere her business has sprouted, so has the nonprofit, which serves 500 to 600 children each year.
“At Pediatrics Plus, we found a lot of parents would confide in us,” says Denton, the mother of 11-year-old Kate and 8-year-old Max. “They had noticed that their kids with special needs were not able to do the kinds of things that their siblings could. So we jumped in.”
Denton has been the president of the nonprofit’s board from the start. Activities have grown from theater, which predated Community Connections in a program called ACTS Jr., to art, basketball, cheerleading, football, golf, music, martial arts and soccer—all free of charge.
“A Hendrix College soccer player wanted to do community service, so we got her involved in our first soccer program, and she ran it for a year and made it sustainable,” Denton says. “A lot of our programs are that way. Somebody comes to us or we reach out to universities or other programs to partner with.” The programs mix typically developing peers with the special needs teams to provide an integrated experience.
Denton, a former pediatric physical therapist who keeps up her license, is “a self-proclaimed child advocate,” she says, relentlessly enthusiastic in discussing brain development, active play, exercise and social connections. “Kids should be kids, regardless of their abilities. Activities are a great way to get involvement with the community.”
A member of the Arkansas Early Childhood Commission, Denton gives much of the credit for the program’s success to its director, Courtney Leach, and to loyal and generous board members who have endowed several programs. Her goal is to spread the activity programs to all corners of the state. “We have low overhead, and we have a volunteer model,” she says. “A town could start the soccer program by raising as little as $2,000 for a year.”
Flashing a winning smile, she shares a memory. “One dad who was an athlete really mourned that he and his son, who had been diagnosed with autism, would never be able to watch Sunday football. But the son got involved with our football program and learned the game. The dad emailed us saying that he and his son had sat down and watched a game. The boy knew the rules and was excited, and the dad said that we had turned what he never thought would happen into reality.”
To learn more about Community Connections, visit CommunityConnectionsAR.org.