Santa and Mrs. Claus came to visit us at our Early Childhood Holiday Party earlier this month! We had almost 100 people celebrate the season with us. We enjoyed dinner, fun activities and playing music with Tavaci! Thank you to everyone who helped make this evening so magical!
*if you would like a high resolution version of any of the pictures taken, please email our Public Outreach Coordinator Brittany at bcoon@knoxdd.com and she will be happy to get it for you!
For the past 6 years we have held the annual Summerfest! Each year it has been something fun and different—- this year we decided to bring it back to the basics and have a simple and fun picnic at the park! The rain didn’t deter us from having a nice afternoon together. There was lots of fun and laughter during our picnic!
On April 25, 2019 the Knox County Chamber of Commerce held the Ribbon Cutting Ceremony for Harmony Playground, the new fully inclusive playground in Mount Vernon. Harmony Playground has been a wonderful collaborative project with the Knox County Board of Developmental Disabilities, Crossfit 1808, the Knox County Health Department Creating Healthy Communities and many other wonderful team members that brought together this amazing playground for all families in Knox County and beyond.
Carol Grubaugh, with the Chamber of Commerce led the ceremony and we heard wonderful remarks from Katie Fiorilli, Crossfit 1808 & Caroline’s Classic; Tami Ruhl, Knox County Health Department Creating Healthy Communities; Steve Oster, Knox County Board of Developmental Disabilities; and Mayor Dick Mavis, City of Mount Vernon. Thank you to Jamie and Levi Sanders for cutting the ribbon!
Thank you to everyone who helped make this project a reality, and thank you to everyone who came out to the ribbon cutting ceremony!
Knox County Board of Developmental Disabilities
The Ariel Foundation
Diversified Products & Services
Richard & Arline Landers Foundation
Crossfit 1808 Caroline’s Classic
United Way of Knox County
Kiwanis Club of Mount Vernon
The Energy Cooperative Operation Round Up Foundation, Inc.
The Ramser Family
Licking/Knox Goodwill Industries, Inc.
Knox County Health Department Creating Healthy Communities
Women United
First-Knox National Bank, Division of Park National Bank
Elks Care, Elks Share - Mount Vernon Elks #140
Celestine Watkins
Siemens Energy Systems, Inc.
Mount Vernon Rotary Foundation
City of Mount Vernon
Knox County Foundation
Foundation Parks Conservancy
Concepts in Community Living, Inc.
Margo de Camp
Steve Oster
Kim & Pam Rose
Ian & Charlotte Watson
Creative Foundations, Inc.
Gordy & Fran Yance
Delta Kappa Gamma of Knox County
Knox Community Hospital
Chip & Katie Wilson
Marc & Jen Odenweller
Geotechnical Consultants, Inc.
The Marlow Family
Deb Romas & Associates
Dr. Robert & Patricia Ronk
Riverside Recovery Services - Where Recovery Brings Hope
Amy Albery
Elena N. Brechler
Craig Black - Tricia Moore - Andrew & Anna Breen
Team “Neverquit” - AFC
Adam Daniels - Ben Durbin - Natalee Johnson - Trista Butler
Brock M. Evans
Lara K. Farmer
Built By Unity
Hanna Ford
Matthew Gibson
The Hickman Family
John & Kristin Hofferberth
Matthew Kelling
Always Forward CrossFit
Tara Lamb
Alex Lambert
Melissa Leonard
Ron & Natalie Lucas & Family
Dan & Rebekah Mullins
Emily Nussbaum
Alicia Olson
Evan Palmer
Kathy Patton
Chad & Tami Ruhl
Holden Richards
The Ruffner Family
In Memory of Dorothy “Dottie” Marchal
Megan West
Neal Bell - Justin Satin - Loriann Fuhrer - Kris Whiting
Nichole Williams
“N8” Woodford
Dick & Peggy Mavis
Flappers Bar & Grille - Norm & Erron Porter - Steve Oster
Benjamin Peter Ollis
Lucy Peterson
Barbara Jordan
Anonymous
Easterseals Central & Southeast Ohio
ViaQuest, Inc.
Gantt Homes Inc. & The HIVE
Teresa Bemiller
Joe & Miranda Conkle
Nick & Katie Fiorilli
Rhonda & Chuck Gherman
Steve & Kathy Greenich
Mike & Karen Hagans
Jaclynn Mahle
Joe & Sally Nelson
Donald & Nancy Omahan
Friends of Kelly Shoemaker
In Memory of Ashton Cordray
Moms of Mount Vernon Giving Back
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!
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!
![Special Olympics State Skills Tournament [basketball]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a14344e64b05fdd8a136c29/1553536912838-JSSXETOANNISUUBFNJ5M/Knox+special+olympics-50.jpg)
