On August 8th, more than a hundred athletes, volunteers and family members gathered to celebrate the wonderful accomplishments of the Athletes in our Athletics, Basketball, Bocce and Bowling programs. Congratulations to each and every person that is involved in making this program so successful!
Ansley Daubenmier, Mount Vernon High School Senior brought the Limitless Livestock Show to the Knox County Fair! The Limitless Livestock Show allows an opportunity for children with developmental disabilities to show an animal without the obligation of purchasing the animal.
There were several children that participated in the program with mentors that showed horses, cows, chickens, pigs, goats and rabbits.
Thank you, Ansley for putting together a wonderful and memorable event. Thank you to all the mentors, friends and family that also made this event so wonderful. Congratulations to Ciarra, Alex, Dalton, Ayden, Annie, Nevaeh, and Makenna! You all did a fabulous job showing the animals!
On June 8th, Lashley Training Center hosted our first Powerlifting Meet! Knox, Stark and Madison counties all came together to show off how hard they have been training. Thank you so much to everyone that helped make this event a reality!
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.
Employer Award: Knox County Engineer’s Office
Local Hero Award: Tanner Cooper-Risser, OSU Extension
Dedication Award: Colleen Frazee, Independent Provider
Community Partner Award: Centerburg Church of Christ & Kenyon College Athletics
Individual Spotlight Award: Darian Decamp & Tarynn Ball
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.
On Thursday March 21st, the Bladensburg Community Center welcomed our Special Olympics Basketball athletes for our second annual Showcase event!
The Bladensburg Sertoma generously donated $500 to Knox County Special Olympics and assisted with arranging this wonderful event.
Thank you to everyone that helped make this event possible!
Timmy Jaynes
Tracy Blanton
Stacy & Michelle Hagans
Simmons Farm
On Saturday, January 20th, Kenyon College hosted the Special Olympics North West Regional Basketball Skills Tournament! Thank you to everyone who helped make this event possible!
On Friday evening, Santa and Mrs. Claus spent some time with these amazing families and kiddos at our Sensory Santa event! The kiddos even got to do so many fun crafts and activities while they were there!
Thank you to The Autism Society of Central Ohio and everyone else that pulled together to host this event!
As you approach a little yellow house in Mount Vernon, you can’t help but notice all the amazing Halloween decorations that have adorned the home. A graveyard in the front, a creepy Pennywise clown hanging off the side of the house, beautifully haunting murals hand painted in the front windows and so much more! It is clear that the gentleman that lives here loves Halloween!
Jacob just moved to Mount Vernon this past summer after some not-so-great experiences at his last residence. He has been working hard at Creative Learning Workshop where he is a janitor, making new friends in his new town, and doing his best to live life the way he wants to!
Halloween is his absolute favorite holiday, so his Direct Support Professional Suzanne has been working hard to help him decorate his home! They have created amazing murals that are painted in the windows, some spooky spiders, ghastly ghosts, a creepy graveyard and so much more! He is enjoying scaring people that drive past his house with all his scary decorations!
Jacob dreams of working in a haunted house so he can scare people for a living! Unfortunately, this year we couldn’t help him achieve that dream – but next year he has big plans! One of the nurses that works with Jacob has some great connections – her husband works at a haunted house! He is going to help Jacob with making connections, applying, and interviewing with that haunted house next season so he can fulfill his dream of scaring people for a living!
On October 13, 2023 the grassy area near the Knox DD/Head Start Building was filled with laughter, activities and fun for the family! Our Help Me Grow and Early Intervention programs put on a family Fall Festival for the community to come together and have a wonderful time!
We had food available from Mama Lupe’s and Molten Grilled Cheese, cotton candy, free pumpkins to decorate that were generously donated, “Bring the Farm to You” petting zoo, Triple P, Knox Public Health WIC, CMH, Cribs for Kids, The Village Network, NYAP, Head Start, Spi Spot, Amanda Gibson Parent Mentor, Tavaci, Autism Society, Safy, OhioKAN, OhioRISE, Lashley Training, New Directions, Interchurch and Creative Foundations were all available to do fun activities and make memories that will last a lifetime. We also were visited by the Mount Vernon Fire Department!
Thank you to everyone that helped make this event such a memorable and successful event!
On August 3rd, more than a hundred athletes, volunteers and family members gathered to celebrate the wonderful accomplishments of the Athletes in our Athletics, Basketball, Bocce and Bowling programs. Congratulations to each and every person that is involved in making this program so successful! We ended the evening by presenting an award to Linda Kerr as she is handing the torch off to Talisha Beha to lead the next phase of the Special Olympics program in Knox County.
