June 2024 Wrap-Up

June has brought many changes to ICC. We were able to celebrate the end of a “school year” with our local school district members through a fun bowling party, before gearing up for the summer schedule. Our summer schedule has already been packed with many community based opportunities. Members and staff, both in the morning and afternoon, are having fun with our summer theme weeks. June themes included: Movin’ and Groovin’, Disney, Challenge and Animal Planet.  Some of our favorite activities over the month included: “Name that Tune” for Disney week, “Nailed It-Inclusion Style” for challenge week, and “Pet Painting” during animal planet week.

OUT AND ABOUT IN THE COMMUNITY

We would like to give a special thanks to the Whistlers Run and Rescue in De Pere for hosting one of our most hands-on community outings of June. Whistlers Run and Rescue has a simple philosophy that states; “every living creature deserves respect.” This goes for both two and four legged creatures. The rescue offers stables for boarding, a safe haven for a variety of animals in need of a place to stay, and hands-on tours of the grounds where guests are able to meet and even feed some of the friendly animals. The owners were amazing, giving not one, but two tours to our members! 

UPCOMING EVENTS

Uncle Mikes Food Emporium in Appleton is hosting a Wine Tasting fundraising event for Inclusion on Thursday, August 22, 2024!  You can find the ticket link at umfoodemporium.com. There are only 90 tickets available so get them while you can!  

This fundraising opportunity has come at the perfect time for us.  If you have followed us for a while you already know we have grown quickly in our first year of business.  That being said, Shannon and I are excited to share that we have committed to a larger space, only one block away from the center!  The additional space will allow us to grow our staff, members, and programming.  The building is currently under construction and we are working with the construction team as they work to get the space ready.  We are hoping to have access by January 2025, but will keep everyone updated as we know more.

April and May 2024 Wrap-Up

April and May were jam packed with new members and activities!  We were happy to welcome several new members to the center in the last couple months and have spent time getting to know them.  Our small tools and home improvement unit was a hit with all the members.  They had the opportunity to get hands on with basic tools and learned the basis of home maintenance, including; how to change a light bulb, plunge a toilet, make a bed, and how to maintain a home smoke detector.  The highlight of the unit was definitely getting to build personal pencil holders and working together to make the center a Plinko board!  Finished product is coming soon. A friend of Inclusion also inspired both members and staff to appreciate our uniqueness during Autism Awareness Month.  Each of us worked to find images and words that had meaning to us personally for an individual puzzle piece.  Puzzle pieces are now being assembled into an infinity symbol to symbolize infinite variations and possibilities that represent inclusion and diversity.

OUT AND ABOUT IN THE COMMUNITY

We would like to give a special thanks to the Little Chute Piggly Wiggly’s staff and customers for being more than accommodating each week as we have worked to navigate grocery shopping semi-independently.  Inclusion has utilized the bus system each Thursday over the past 9 months that has a direct line to the “Pig” as we call it.  Members have worked with staff to understand the layout of the store and each has had individual goals ranging from appropriate voice level to reading and finding each item on our weekly shopping list. 

UPCOMING EVENTS

Inclusion has many exciting upcoming events!  Our most recent update is, we were able to get a center van.  We will continue to utilize public transportation in addition to our own transportation.  The van will be utilized for members' daily activities in the community that we were unable to get to due to bus schedules or routes.  We will also be offering transportation to and from the center for members to cut down on pick up and drop off clusters we have run into as the year has progressed.  We are also looking at fundraising opportunities to receive donations to support member outings and materials.  

March 2024 Wrap-Up

March was all about encouraging independent living for our afternoon crew. We worked on things like identifying junk mail versus real mail and identifying emergencies versus non-emergencies. We also added a few new members to our group, so we’ve been getting to know them and helping them learn our schedules. Our morning crew has been working on cooperation through games and chores, as well as books, crafts and activities for our themed weeks (Dr. Suess, Saint Patrick’s Day, career/work, Easter). We also added music to our day from Thrive Music Therapy. Our teacher, Leah, will be visiting us every other week. With the weather slowly warming, we are also taking more walks and adventures around downtown Kaukauna.

OUT AND ABOUT IN THE COMMUNITY

This month we wanted to take a moment to give VPI’s School District Transition Services a shout-out and a big thank you. Several of our half-day members spend the other half of the day working on job skills at the various VPI partners. We’d especially like to thank the Youth Employment Specialist Alex Browne, who has been a huge help in making the transition between work and Inclusion as smooth as possible. We wish him all the best in his next endeavors.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Jake’s Network of Hope is hosting a diaper drive. As fellow members of HYPE through the Fox Valley Chamber of Commerce, we would like to support this awesome organization by participating in the diaper drive as well. We will be gathering diaper packs and/or monetary donations from April 15th-May 7th. If you would like to donate, drop off anytime during our hours (8am-3pm), or send with members.  We appreciate your support in this awesome event.