On March 28th, we had another great turnout for Lego Club: Farm Animals. It’s always such a pleasure to watch how everyone works together to create such amazing creations!
As March comes to a close, it’s so wonderful to take some time to reflect on how amazing Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month is. We have been honored to be able to speak to Ohio State Legislators, have a fun evening dancing the night away, had a few Sensory Sensitive Movie showings, two Lego Club events, hosted our annual coloring and essay contest with all public schools in Knox County, and we had an amazing luncheon where we were able to honor so many great community leaders who make Knox County so amazing to live, work and thrive in.
At our DD Month Luncheon we discussed how technology can assist people who have developmental disabilities be more independent and have fuller lives. We were also able to honor 6 different people/groups who make Knox County so amazing.
Local Hero Award: Terri Pribonic, New Hope Industries
Employer Award: Justin Newell, Kenyon College Athletics
Community Partner Award: Public Library of Knox County and Mount Vernon
Community Partner Award: Premiere Theatre 7
Dedication Award: Tiffany Cagnon, Midwest Community
Individual Spotlight Award: Jocelyn Gilardi
Thank you for making Knox County so great!
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Athletes from Knox County traveled to Hilliard Darby High School on March 23rd to compete with other athletes from across the state of Ohio in the Special Olympics Basketball Skills Competition! All of our athletes won ribbons and medals and had a great time competing!
We love getting to watch creativity and imagination take over as people come together to build amazing creations at Lego Club. On 3/14 we had a great turn out and had some pretty stellar pieces made! The theme was “Sandwiches, Burgers, Subs & More!” (a theme that was submitted by a kiddo!! Great thinking!) and the pieces that were created were extraordinary!
If you have a great idea for a theme, feel free to email it to Brody Boggs (bboggs@knoxdd.com) and he’ll try to add it to the calendar!
“The Developmental Disability (DD) Advocacy and Awareness Day is an annual event that has taken place for over a decade at The Ohio Statehouse in March which is DD Awareness Month. The purpose of this event is to educate and empower people with developmental disabilities, their family members and other community allies to come together on a single day to advocate policy issues which impact the lives of people with developmental disabilities.”
Knox County had several self-advocates attend this event and were able to advocate for people with disabilities in our communities. Great job, everyone!
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For the past few years, we have held our annual Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month Kickoff Dance— This year our theme was “Boots & Belles”. We collected donations for Riverside Recovery Services- they enjoyed spending the evening with us, collecting donations and helping us tear down decorations at the end of the evening. Thank you everyone who made this night a success!
Please enjoy some of our photos! If you have any you’d like to share, feel free to send them our way!
Thank you to everyone who came out to Lego Club at MVNU on 1/31! We had another great turnout and families enjoyed creating fun ‘out of this world’ Lego Creations!
On January 16th, over 60 people joined us and built their very own Castle Creations! Everyone had a great time— especially those who won door prizes!
Thank you everyone for joining us and to MVNU for hosting us! Stay tuned for our next Lego Club event in a couple of weeks!
The Knox County Chamber of Commerce holds their Annual Dinner and Awards Ceremony each January. The Knox County Board of Developmental Disabilities was nominated for and received the Heart Award, which honors a Chamber member that “achieves and maintains architectural design that compliments our community.” The All-Inclusive Playground that has been built at Memorial Park has been a massive project that broke ground in September and was completed in December of 2018. This playground will be a wonderful place for all families to come together to play and make wonderful memories!
Thank you, Knox County for helping us make our community a wonderful place to live, work and play!
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The staff at the Knox County Board of Developmental Disabilities wish you a wonderful Holiday season!