Thank You TCF and Helping Hens!

We would like to say a huge Thank You to the Toledo Community Foundation’s Helping Hens Fund for Making Our Dream Come True!

Every child deserves a chance to ride a bike, and thanks to the Toledo Community Foundation (TCF) and the Helping Hens Fund, sponsored by the Toledo Mud Hens, we can now ride TOGETHER!

The Toledo Community Foundation and the Toledo Mud Hens Baseball Club’s Helping Hens Fund just awarded Sara’s Garden $5,944 for four new Rifton Adaptive Tricycles for our special needs students and summer campers. With these tricycles, we’ll now have enough for one classroom of New Horizons Academy students to ride to the park together. Bicycling is about more than just gross motor development. It is also about building friendships and socializing together. Thanks to a previous family donation and a donation from St. Caspar’s Knights of Columbus (K of C) Council #8829, we now have six Rifton Adaptive Tricycles for our students to use and enjoy, both for recreation and therapy.

The Toledo Community Foundation’s Helping Hens Fund promotes the overall fitness and wellness of children in kindergarten through twelfth grade in the Greater Toledo Metropolitan Area by sponsoring exercise, sports and/or physical recreation programming. “Play is such an essential component in the lives of children,” explained Matt Rychener, Director of Sara’s Garden. “Through play, kids are able to define who they are and who they want to be. In addition to the youthful exuberance that bike riding brings, these adaptive tricycles bring many therapeutic benefits to children, who spend a great deal of their time sitting or using a cane or walker, including strengthening their lower extremities, patterning their leg motions, developing balancing skills, using visual and spatial perception for steering, and interacting with peers and classmates. Thanks to such generous community support and encouragement like yours, New Horizons Academy School has grown to over 100 students!”

The Toledo Community Foundation, Inc. is a public charitable organization created by citizens of our community to enrich the quality of life for individuals and families in our area. In existence since 1973, the TCF has more than 800 funds with assets of approximately $291 million. The TCF provides philanthropic services for individuals, families, businesses, and corporations to meet their charitable giving needs. For more information on the Toledo Community Foundation or its Helping Hens Fund, log onto www.toledocf.org or follow it on Facebook.

As you can see from the pictures, our New Horizons Academy students, Christian Lee and Taylar Alpaugh, want to “Thank you for giving us a chance to ride TOGETHER!”

Thank You Elks!

We would like to say a BIG “Thank You!” to the Ohio Elks Association and the Toledo-Sylvania Elks Lodge #53!

The Ohio Elks Cerebral Palsy (CP) Fund just awarded Sara’s Garden $12,814 towards the construction of its new Visual & Auditory Stimulation Literacy Room, Quiet Therapy Room, and Family Changing Room to meet the growing needs of our regional special education school, New Horizons Academy in Wauseon. NHA serves special needs students and their families from 20 different school districts and nine different Ohio counties. These therapy room conversions are so important in addressing the educational and training needs, functional and independent care needs, and the therapy and treatment needs of our special needs students and Summer Skills Camp participants. Thank you, Ohio Elks Association!

The Ohio Elks Association provides financial aid to established Cerebral Palsy Treatment Centers, and Sara’s Garden is honored to be one of their chosen programs. Every year, Ohio Elks Lodges from across the state raise money to support organizations, which provide care, treatment, training, and rehabilitation for individuals with Cerebral Palsy. We are so grateful to the Ohio Elks Association, the CP Fund Board, the Ohio Northwest District #6920, and the Toledo-Sylvania Elks Lodge #53 for this grant. For more information on the Ohio Elks Association or the Toledo-Sylvania Elks Lodge #53 or to make a donation to the CP Fund, please call 419-841-6653.

Thank you Toledo-Sylvania Elks Lodge Exalted Ruler Terry Harrison and Leading Knight Cynthia Savickus for presenting the CP Fund check to Sara’s Garden Director Matt Rychener, along with the assistance of Loyal Knight Terri Harrison, and Esquire and CP Chairman Chuck Hilyard, Jr. As you can see from our pictures, sensory stimulation and integration are integral parts of Sara’s Garden’s Summer Camp and New Horizons Academy’s Conductive Education (CE) Program for children with cerebral palsy; so from the bottom of our kids’ hearts, “Thank you, Ohio Elks!”

Thank You Ohio Elks!

Sara’s Garden has been blessed to receive a $10,000 grant from the Ohio Elks for its work with children with Cerebral Palsy! Chuck Hilyard Jr. (Back Left) of the Toledo-Sylvania Elks Lodge #53 presented a check to Matt Rychener (Back Right) from Sara’s Garden.

The Ohio Elks Association provides financial aid to established Cerebral Palsy treatment centers. Every year, Ohio Elks lodges around the state raise money to support organizations who provide care, treatment, training and rehabilitation of individuals with Cerebral Palsy.

We are so grateful to the Ohio Elks Association, the CP Fund Board and the Toledo-Sylvania Elks Lodge #53 for this grant. Through this funding, Sara’s Garden is able to provide invaluable resources, equipment and programs for the clients, students and families we serve with Cerebral Palsy!.

Thank You Ohio Elks!

Thank You Roach Family Foundation!

New Horizons Academy’s students, parents, teachers, and staff want to THANK the Roach Family Foundation for their generosity in supporting our behavioral management program!

Through this funding, New Horizons Academy will be able to subscribe to the Chartlytics Behavioral Software System. This behavioral tracking system will make it so much easier, more efficient, and less time-consuming for our staff to track students’ progress on their IEP behavioral goals and objectives. Teachers, behavioral specialists, and parents will now be able to track behavioral patterns, which may help our students to reach their behavioral goals sooner. Such patterns may include specific behaviors or escalated behaviors occurring during certain times of the day, classes, before or after meals, or around certain peers or adults. These are all variables, which could be adjusted to help students to reach their short-term and long-term behavioral goals.

With the large amount of data to track, the Chartlytics Behavior Software will help us to turn a mountain of data into a trackable program, which will help us to monitor student progress and give parents true hope for behavioral change!

Thank You!

Returning American Warriors Donation

On Friday, April 7, 2017, Sara’s Garden was humbled to receive a $2,500 donation from Returning American Warriors (RAW).

Formed in 2013, RAW is a non-profit organization composed of veterans and private citizens bound by a single purpose to aide and assist active duty and reserve personnel, as well as veterans of our armed forces and their families.

All funds received through this generous donation are being used to support the veteran’s service fund at Sara’s Garden. This fund provides scholarships to veterans returning from active duty with Traumatic Brain Injuries and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in need of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy, Conductive Education, Occupational Therapy and Speech-Language Pathology services at Sara’s Garden.

Thank you so much to everyone at RAW! We are so grateful for your support of Sara’s Garden and the veterans we have the honor and privilege of serving.

Pictured from left to right: Eric Holzer (RAW President), Matt Rychener (Sara’s Garden CEO), Gordon Campbell (Army Veteran) and Todd Nemire (RAW Vice President).

To learn more about Returning American Warriors’ mission and organization, please visit their website or Facebook page.

Bryan Area Foundation Grant Received

During Autism Awareness Month, Sara’s Garden and New Horizons Academy want to wholeheartedly thank the Bryan Area Foundation (BAF) for its $6,850 grant to enhance our multi-sensory room! With 1 in 68 children diagnosed with autism, these funds will benefit SO MANY children to help integrate their sensory experiences, increase their concentration, focus, and socialization, reduce aggressive behaviors, and improve their communication skills.

The Bryan Area Foundation funds were used to purchase activity panels (shown in the photograph), an autism steam roller, cozy canoe, a rock climb wall, and a buoy ball swing. Our therapists are already using many of these sensory items with our autistic students. At the end of the school year, additional sensory items will be installed in the multi-sensory room to enhance and expand sensory integration services during this year’s Summer Camp and next school year.

Please keep an eye out for our upcoming multi-sensory room rededication, and please thank the Bryan Area Foundation and its members for helping SO MANY of our special needs children here in Northwest Ohio!

Thank You PMC!

There are times when simply expressing “Thank You” just doesn’t feel like it’s enough. This happens to be one of those times.

We can not begin to adequately express our thanks and gratitude to the congregation at Pettisville Missionary Church. Your generosity towards our on-site housing project through this year’s harvest offering was simply amazing, yet again! Over $41,000 was raised for Sara’s Garden above and beyond the congregation’s normal weekly church offering!

We are so grateful and humbled by your support of this project and our continued ministry here at Sara’s Garden.

Thank you!

Thank You! You Made This Dream Possible!

Words can not adequately express the gratitude we have to everyone who has helped to make our playground project a reality. Thank you! Without all of our amazing donors, volunteers, staff, and board this project would not have been possible.

On behalf of all of our students, we offer you our sincerest gratitude. The joy you have brought to the faces of the children and families we serve is beyond description.

We can now turn our attention to finalizing details of the playground such as fencing, lighting, security, landscaping, benches, picnic tables, etc.

Handicap Accessible Playground Project Key Donor List

Amy Murphy
Anderson Foundation
AWS Foundation
Bryan Area Foundation
Charles & Sharon Lantz
Circle K Midwest Division
Curt & Paulette Spotts
Defiance Area Foundation
Don’s Automotive Group
Fulton County Commissioners
JenAbby Memorial Run
Justin F. Coressel Charitable Trust
Keith Hubbard Family Fund
International Automotive Components
Lions Club International Foundation
M & R Redi-Mix, Inc.

Machacek Concrete LLC
Marathon Classic
Napoleon Elks Lodge No. 929
Norplas Industries, Inc.
Peg Boyers Memorial Fund
Pettisville Missionary Church
Ronald McDonald House Charities of NW Ohio
Ruth Clair
Sharon Wyse Memorial Fund
Tony Burkholder Memorial Fund
Tony Schuette Construction
United Way
Wauseon City Council
Wauseon Fireman’s Association
Wauseon Lions Club
Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church

This is but a partial list of key donors and sponsors of this project. Many others asked to remain anonymous. We are humbled by the level of generosity we’ve received throughout this process.

Thank you, again, for helping make handicap accessible playground project at Sara’s Garden and New Horizons Academy such a success! We simply could not have done it without you!

Thank You Fulton County Heart Radiothon

We are so thankful to the Fulton County Heart Radiothon for helping us obtain an automatic external defibrillator (AED) device for New Horizons Academy and our Hope Center banquet hall.

Due to the nature of conditions that our clients and guests have we are striving to create a greater awareness, availability, and knowledge of cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Additionally, because we rent out this facility on evenings and weekends as a banquet hall for a variety of events, we want to ensure that the people attending these events have the best possible chance of survival should the unthinkable happen.

We believe that having an AED present in the Hope Center would provide a faster first response to a cardiac incidence and would be vital to clients and guests not only from Northwest Ohio, but from all across the country.

Thanks again to the Fulton County Heart Radiothon!