Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month 2024

Each year in the month of March we celebrate Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month!

For 2024, we have been honored to host our annual DD Awareness Month Luncheon where we had about 200 guests join us as we took a journey through life and shared different ways our program has impacted peoples lives from birth through the rest of their lifetime. The presenters that shared their incredible stories were Bryce and Sarah Maners (with their gorgeous daughter MJ), Amber Lavin, Tarynn Ball and Dave Chopson. We were also honored to give out awards to seven different deserving people/groups.

This year we were also able to partner with MTV Arts to have a Sensory Friendly viewing of their production of Honk! We had about 25 people join us on March 13th to watch the show in a sensory safe environment. Thank you for this wonderful opportunity, MTV Arts!

We were excited to host our 8th Annual Coloring and Essay Contest for all Knox County Elementary Schools this year and would like to thank the students for helping us celebrate.  There were nine hundred and thirty-five students who participated in the coloring (K-2nd grades) and essay (3rd-5th grades) contest with one hundred and eleven classrooms participating county-wide, representing twelve different elementary schools in Knox County. 

We are proud to announce the winners of this year’s coloring contest (K-2nd grades): Maezie Stefanik (Fredericktown), Aubree Miller (East Knox), Maren Waibel (Columbia), Addyson Pollock (Pleasant St.), Kennedy Vicars (East), Rowan Kerr  (Danville), Jayce Glick (Knox Learning Center), Oliver Alberts (Dan Emmett), Carter Mackie (Twin Oak),  Giada Gallo (Centerburg), Zoey Light (St. Vincent de Paul),  and  Elena Suazo-Faber (Wiggin St.).  The winners of this year’s essay contest (3rd-5th grades) were: Hadley Mann (Fredericktown), Rylei Morton (East Knox), Eva Johnson (Columbia), Abigail Puzines (Pleasant St.), Zeb Vanderhoof  (East), Kate Gottke (East), Zayden Sapp (Danville), Savannah Byall (Dan Emmett), Lily McCament (Twin Oak), Samantha Jagger (Centerburg) and  Keely Booth (Wiggin St.).  Also congratulations to Sarah Vance from Danville Elementary for winning the teacher classroom prize this year.

Back row: Zeb Vanderhoof, Zayden Sapp, Hadley Mann, Abigail Puzines, Lily McCament, Keely Booth, Samantha Jagger, Rylei Morton, Kate Gottke

Front Row: Addyson Pollock, Aubree Miller, Zoey Light, Rowan Kerr, Elena Suazo-Faber, Kennedy Vicars, Jayce Glick, Giada Gallo

Not Pictured: Maezie Stefanik, Maren Waibel, Oliver Albers, Carter Mackie, Eva Johnson, Savannah Byall and Ms. Sarah Vance (teacher prize winner)

The Knox County Special Olympics basketball skills and team groups were able to partner with the Bladensburg Community Center on March 21st to hold a Basketball Showcase Event! Check out this blog post to see photos from this event.

The final exciting thing we did during March was partner with Mount Vernon Nazarene University for a OneMeal event. Together, we were able to package over 23,000 meals for Kids Across the World that will help feed children in Uganda and Zambia.

Brittany Coon