While the children participate in fun activities, their parents will have an opportunity to receive vital information.
The inaugural FestABILITY, a free event for school-aged special needs children and their families, is set for 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday at the Boys and Girls Club of Seymour, 950 N. O’Brien St.
There will be face painting, coloring, games, a sensory room and goody bags for the kids and information about Social Security, guardianship, disability, medicaid waivers, trusts and more for the parents.
The event is being organized by the Leadership Jackson County community awareness and growth project team of Becca Hyer, Debbie Linke, Vera Reichenbacker and Ryon Wheeler.
“We all know or have children with disabilities or have been around children with disabilities,” Linke said. “I do have a child with disabilities, so I wish that when she was younger that there would have been something like this to tell me what was available.”
As the team was trying to come up with a project, Wheeler contacted Melanie O’Neal, executive director of The Arc of Jackson County and Mental Health America of Jackson County. She had helped organize the first Halloween Hootenanny for special needs children and their families in the fall at the Boys and Girls Club.
That’s when Wheeler realized what The Arc of Jackson County and Mental Health America of Jackson County offer to the community.
Between the team members’ personal experiences and connections, FestABILITY came to life.
“We thought we wanted to help kids with disabilities and special needs, and then all of a sudden, it just worked,” Wheeler said. “Everything came together. It was like a spark. When the time came to choose, we knew that was the project. There wasn’t a lot of discussion. It was like, ‘Yeah, we’re going to do this.’”
Activities for kids will be in the gymnasium. Volunteers from local schools, organizations, businesses and industries and The Arc board members have stepped up to help with the activities. Others are welcome to volunteer.
“I’d rather have way too many volunteers than not enough because we want parents to have that sense of security that ‘My child isn’t going to wander off,’” O’Neal said. “Even if it’s one-on-one volunteer-to-child ratio, that would be a perfect-case scenario.”
The sensory room was Wheeler’s idea.
“There are some kids that face painting, musical chairs, that’s overwhelming, and so those parents would not be able to come in and get the information if they knew their child could potentially have a meltdown because they are overstimulated,” he said.
“So we’re using some items some people donated, just bringing everything together to make one room at the club quiet and dark, and those kids who might be overstimulated can just spend time in that room and not be overstimulated and the parents can get information,” he said.
Nearly 20 vendors with resources for parents will be set up in the front part of the Boys and Girls Club. Information will include residential and housing supports, vocational supports, social and leisure opportunities, medical and mental health, finances, advocacy and legal.
“I think we’ve done a good job of playing to each other’s strengths, especially when we’ve talked about vendors,” Hyer said. “It’s just like, ‘Well, I know this person and I know that person.’ We’ve definitely followed what we knew, but we’ve been able to bring it back to the table and learn a lot about what’s going on. I feel like there’s a lot of good communication.”
There also will be guest speakers who will speak twice during the two-hour event. The Arc of Indiana will talk about advocacy and trusts, the Bureau of Developmental Disabilities Services will speak about Medicaid waivers and Montgomery, Elsner and Pardieck will share information on disability and guardianship.
“The Medicaid waiver and how important that is, most people with special needs kids starting out don’t know how to get that, so that’s a very important piece to me,” Linke said. “If we can tell people about it, that’s great.”
O’Neal said the event also will be a good opportunity for parents to socialize with other parents.
“Parents will be able to communicate with other parents that are in the same boat as them,” she said. “They can relate, they can share stories or they can share resources to where if they weren’t getting together in this one place, they wouldn’t be able to collaborate themselves, so I think that’s very important also.”
While parents gain knowledge of resources available in the community, the kids will be in a fun, safe environment where they can be themselves, O’Neal said.
“Having a special needs child, people stare. Adults and children, you’re out in public, not everyone is used to being around a special needs child,” she said. “These children will be able to come and be themselves and not have to worry about being judged. It’s good, clean fun for them. It’s the appropriate environment for them.”
O’Neal said she didn’t know much about Leadership Jackson County before becoming involved with the project team, and she is proud of the work they have put in to make FestABILITY an option for special needs children and their families.
The Arc used to do a vendor fair that was geared toward parents, but O’Neal said it wasn’t well-attended, so she’s glad the project team created an event that will offer a lot for kids and their parents.
“We’ve had this foggy vision of ‘We know we need to do something in our community,’” O’Neal said. “It was a foggy dream that The Arc had, but this Leadership Jackson County team has helped me make it crystal clear reaching the families and the kids one-stop shopping.”
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What: FestABILITY, presented by Leadership Jackson County and The Arc of Jackson County
When: 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday
Where: Boys and Girls Club of Seymour, 950 N. O’Brien St., Seymour
Who: School-aged special needs children and their families
Cost: Free; child care will be provided
Details: Face painting, coloring, games, sensory room and goody bags for the kids; information about Social Security, guardianship, disability, Medicaid waivers and trusts for the parents; and nearly 20 vendors with information about residential and housing supports, vocational supports, social and leisure opportunities, medical and mental health, finances, advocacy and legal
Information: Becca Hyer at 812-271-1407 or Melanie O’Neal at 812-271-2200
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