WILKES-BARRE, Pa. — Torony's Giant Hotdog Shop in Plains Township was busy outside and inside on Friday because of a fundraiser spearheaded by resident Lizzie Breznay. The goal is to raise money for the Wilkes-Barre special-needs playground program.
"We met Mayor George brown. That was inspiration right there, seeing his enthusiasm, and it got us enthusiastic about the whole thing. And Lizzie wants to help. Lizzie, being a special-needs individual herself, wants to help out others that may want to go to a playground like this, and the nice thing about it is it's totally inclusion when they do something like this," said Helen Breznay.
Mayor George Brown put together a committee earlier this year to make playgrounds more accessible for people with special needs.
"And it's for Lizzie and other people like Lizzie that have mobility issues," said the mayor.
Lizzie's on the committee and is making this happen with fundraisers like this.
"I work at the VA Medical Center, and we've known Lizzie for years, and we understand this is a really great project. So all the girls from the recreation therapy department, we decided to chip in and get all the tickets we could to support everybody, and it's such a good cause," Karen Tomasello said.
"It's going to come to fruition," said Mayor Brown. "This will be finished within two years. We're looking at starting the infrastructure changes within a month. What I mean by that is we're going to be putting paved pathways within Kirby Park. We're going to change some things, making it more ADA compliant."