2020 #GivingTuesday419

Like so many other things, #GivingTuesday419 this year has gone VIRTUAL!

#GivingTuesday419 is still all about giving back to the community, showing thankfulness and gratitude for what we do have, and sharing with those, who need it the most. That hasn’t changed. What has changed is the format for giving.

Instead of a single day of giving, the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, this year, #GivingTuesday419 will be a five-day event. From November 29 through December 3, 2020, anyone may log onto Everence’s Giving Tuesday web site, register for the virtual program, and enter their favorite charity into a special giveaway or drawing. Donations may also be made directly to Sara’s Garden with Sara’s Garden tallying the numbers and updating Everence’s Giving Tuesday totals.

Through last year’s Giving Tuesday Event, we had almost reached our fundraising goal for our fully accessible playgrounds and multisensory areas in Wauseon and Springfield, SO OUR KIDS COULD PLAY! We were all SO excited to get the projects started, to expand the roof over our courtyard, pour the latex-vinyl flooring for safe, exploratory play, and create UNBELIEVABLE play areas for physical education, therapy, recreation, and FUN!

And then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and the world changed for our special needs kids. Our school was forced to close, and our students were lost! They lost their routine, their sense of community, and even their playmates and friends. Online learning was NOT designed for special needs kids! They were MORE than anxious to come back to school, back to their routines, their teachers, and their friends.

But they also came back to coronavirus precautions—masks, social distancing, hand washing, sanitizing, teachers switching classrooms NOT kids, lunch in homerooms, and NO new playgrounds because of coronavirus delays and other required safety precautions. These new requirements were not part of our original plans, but they are NOW necessities to keep our children safe and healthy! So, we need YOUR help.

During this Giving Tuesday, please help our special needs kids to play and play safely by giving of yourself and helping us to finish our long-awaited playgrounds. Through your caring and support, we hope to continue to make a difference in the lives of our special needs children and their families. No gift is too small to help inspire change in Northwest Ohio!

For more information on #GivingTuesday419 or to register for the event, log onto Everence.com/GivingTuesday419.

Marathon Classic Volunteers Needed

Sara’s Garden is proud to announce that we have been selected as a benefiting charity for the 2020 LPGA Marathon Classic to be hosted at Highland Meadows Golf Course, August 3rd-9th.

Sara’s Garden, with the support of the Marathon Classic, hopes to create TWO fully inclusive, multi-sensory play areas in Springfield and Wauseon, which offer youth of all ability levels and their families the opportunity to explore, discover, and play together. They will address the needs of special needs children with neurological, intellectual, and physical disabilities, as well as their typically developing peers and siblings. These fully inclusive, regional playgrounds will have areas and activities rich in sensory experiences, social interactions, and physical challenges. The play areas will naturally expand and enhance both the recreational and therapeutic treatment, offered both during and after school hours for special needs children and their families.

As a benefiting charity, we are providing volunteers to help with set-up and clean-up of the tournament.

Ten volunteers are needed for set-up on August 2nd from 2:00 – 6:00 pm.
Three volunteers are needed to for clean-up on August 10th at 8:00 am until completion for clean-up (approximately 2 hours).

Volunteers should wear clothes you are comfortable getting dirty or paint on, no jeans allowed. If the volunteer is under 18 years of age, they must have a parent or guardian present.

If interested in volunteering on behalf of Sara’s Garden, please contact Kelly Elton at [email protected].

2020 “Drive Fore Hope” Event Postponed

Our 2020 “Drive hope Hope” Charity Golf Scramble previously scheduled for Friday, May 22 has been postponed indefinitely.

With all the uncertainty surrounding Ohio’s current stay-at-home order we need to postpone this year’s event. Even if we were able to get together by this date we can not, in good conscious, solicit sponsorships right now from local businesses who have been negatively impacted by this time of unrest and shut down.

Thank you so much to the individuals and businesses of Northwest Ohio who have so generously supported us over the years. You have blessed us beyond measure and allowed us to carry out our mission.

We will let you know if we are going to be able to move the 2020 Drive Fore Hope to a later date in the year.

2020 “Drive Fore Hope” Charity Golf Scramble

Dust off your clubs! Sara’s Garden would like to invite you to participate in the 2020 “Drive Fore Hope” Charity Golf Scramble. Be sure to save the date! We have put together a fun-filled day at Ironwood Golf Course in Wauseon, Ohio and hope to see you there!

Event Date:	Friday, May 22, 2020
Event Location:	Ironwood Golf Course, Wauseon, Ohio
Event Format:	4-Player Team Scramble
Event Cost:	$75 per Player ($300 per Team)

All proceeds from this event will be used towards the purchase of therapy equipment for our clients and students at Sara’s Garden and New Horizons Academy. Sara’s Garden is a recognized 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and is the only facility in the United States to offer Autism Intervention, Conductive Education, Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Sensory Integration and Speech-Language Pathology services.

Registration Includes:

Scramble format (4-player teams)
Green and cart fees
Range balls
Goodie bag
Contests and prizes
Awards for top teams
Lunch Buffet

Time	Schedule of Events
7:00 a.m.	Registration
	Range Open
8:00 a.m.	Shotgun Scramble
1:00 p.m.	Lunch Buffet
2:00 p.m.	Awards

Partnership Opportunities

Platinum Title Partner – $1,500

Includes one foursome, event promotion, platinum title partner signage and program recognition.
This level of sponsorship will provide 15 hours of HBOT treatments or up to 43 hours of intervention services.

Gold Event Partner – $900

Includes one foursome, gold event partner activity signage and program recognition.
This level of sponsorship will provide 9 hours of HBOT treatments or up to 25 hours of intervention services.

Silver Contest Partner – $500

Includes one foursome, silver contest partner signage and program recognition.
This level of sponsorship will provide 5 hours of HBOT treatments or up to 14 hours of intervention services.

Bronze Meal Partner – $350

Includes bronze meal partner signage and program recognition.
This level of sponsorship will provide 3.5 hours of HBOT treatments or up to 10 hours of intervention services.

O2 Tee Partner – $100

Includes O2 tee partner signage and program recognition.
This level of sponsorship will provide 1 hour of HBOT treatments or up to 3 hours of intervention services.

For additional information regarding partnership opportunities or team registration for the Sara’s Garden “Drive Fore Hope” Charity Golf Scramble please contact Jackie at 419.335.SARA or via email at [email protected].

Please join us for a great day of golf filled with fun, great food, auction items, skill contests and fabulous prizes. Take a day off work for a great cause and meet some of the amazing people you are golfing to help!

Designer Purse BINGO is Back!

We’re bringing back Purse BINGO for 2020 and we hope you can make it! After changing the format to a reverse raffle style event for a couple years due to state regulations, we have heard everyone’s feedback and are working on the necessary licensing to allow us to hold the event in a BINGO format once again. Stay tuned for updates as we aim to hold this year’s Designer Purse BINGO event in the fall of 2020.

Ladies, this is not your grandmother’s BINGO! You’ll get to enjoy a fun filled Girl’s Night Out with your friends while playing BINGO for fabulous purses from the designers you know and love. Win designer handbags by Coach, Michael Kors, Kate Spade, Ralph Lauren and Dooney & Bourke. There will be many amazing handbags available to win!

Be sure to follow our Facebook page as more details become available. We will be posting photos of the purses and giving you chances to vote for your favorites and earn extra tickets to the raffle and door prizes!

NHA Students Take a Bow

NHA Students Take a Bow, Because We’re All Just a Bunch of FLAKES!

Take a bow New Horizons Academy (NHA) students, teachers, and Christmas Musical Coordinator Melissa Valentine! You all put on a dynamite show, and reminded us that we are all unique, have all different talents, gifts, and abilities; and in the end, we’re all just a bunch of (snow)FLAKES.

On December 10 at Pettisville Missionary Church, NHA preschool to high school students shivered, shimmied, sang, and shook their booties for a full house of over 500 parents, friends, family members, and even community well-wishers. They put on FLAKES, NHA’s second annual Christmas musical, directed by music teacher Valentine. During the musical, the North Wind started blowing, and the temperatures started dropping and dropping down to 10 below zero. A big blizzard hit the stage with a cool bunch of jazzy, finger-snappin’ snowflakes. The Flakes and Snirts helped the Littlest Snowflake to see how no two flakes are alike and that we are all special in our own way. This important lesson culminated with the refrain:

You’re one, one in a million! No other ‘neath the sun. You’re one, one in a million! And the reasons you’re special are a million in one. Just one in a million, but you’re a million in one!

Without Melissa, this Christmas miracle would not have been possible. Without all of her hard work, vision, dedication, and creativity, the show would not have gone on. It was her inspiration, her brain child. She found or created the absolute perfect role for each of our students’ abilities and personalities and corralled and coached over 100 of our special needs kids through the entire Christmas show. Melissa was truly our miracle worker!

Just as everyone is special and unique in their own way, so everyone helped make this musical a night to remember from our students to our staff to our family and even community. Thank you NHA and Northwest Ohio for making our students feel like stars (and FLAKES)!

If you missed this special Christmas show, check out all of the musical pictures on the New Horizons Academy’s Facebook page.

Giving Tuesday NWO 2019

Mark your calendars for #GivingTuesdayNWO!

#GivingTuesdayNWO Offers You a Chance to Give Back to the Community, Show Your Thankfulness for Everything You Have & Share a Portion of What You Have with Those in Need.

Event Date:	Tuesday, December 3, 2019
Event Location:	Sauder Village – Founder’s Hall 22611 State Route 2 Archbold, OH 43502
Event Time:	5:00 p.m.

Last year, the gifts received from #GivingTuesdayNWO helped us to fund and expand our playground project to include both a fully accessible, indoor playground in Wauseon and a multi-sensory, accessible playground at our new school campus in Springfield Township—Holland. Our special needs kids love to play, and they use play as a way to develop their gross motor and problem-solving skills. Play is also a great way to practice their social skills and build healthy relationships. The gifts and donations from last year’s #GivingTuesdayNWO have helped us to cover most of the cost of Wauseon’s indoor playground equipment, but we still need your help and support to cover the cost of the playground’s soft, rubberized surface to protect our children from falls and injuries and to begin developing Springfield’s multi-sensory playground, which will target autistic students dealing with sensory issues. Before we begin playground construction, we need to finish our fundraising efforts.

Please consider supporting our playground efforts this holiday season! With matching funds available through #GivingTuesdayNWO, this is a great opportunity to support our special needs kids AND get the most from your generous donation. Through your caring and support, we hope to continue to make a difference in the lives of our special needs children and their families.

Celebrate Giving Tuesday with:

The Difference Makers Expo and appetizers.
Dinner and panel discussions from local nonprofits.
Giving opportunities to support causes important to you.

No gift is too small to help inspire change in Northwest Ohio!

For more information on #GivingTuesdayNWO or to register for the event, log onto Everence.com/GivingTuesdayNWO.

2019 NHA Christmas Program

“Get ready to shiver, shimmy and shake! The North wind is starting to blow and temperatures are dropping to 10 below… zero, that is! A big blizzard is on the way as a cool bunch of jazzy, finger-snappin’ snowflakes take center stage. What a glistening sight. Uh Oh! Here comes the snowplow!”

The 2019 NHA Christmas program will be taking place on Tuesday, December 10th at 6pm. It will again be held Pettisville Missionary Church in Pettisville, Ohio with overflow parking available at nearby Pettisville school. It will feature students from New Horizons Academy and will include the musical Flakes! as the main event of the evening.

Join the fun as the Flakes and Snirts help the Littlest Snowflake see how no two flakes are alike and we are all special in our own way.

Artwork shown here is by some of our talented students!

Welcome Christmas (An Event for Families)

Tired of feeling stressed, rushed, and joyless at Christmas? Then “Welcome Christmas” is for you. A time to slow down, relax, and focus on what truly matters during Advent and at Christmas. Families from St. John Lutheran Church, south of Archbold, will be hosting this event at our facilities.

Event Date:	Wednesday, December 4, 2019
Event Time:	6:00 – 7:30 p.m.
Event Location:	The Hope Center at Sara’s Garden, Wauseon, Ohio
Event Cost:	$0 ~ FREE

The evening includes supper and a fun family project to help you “Welcome Christmas” during Advent and Christmas caroling! Families will be creating 20 simple ornaments to put on small Christmas tree (provided) every day between the event and Christmas day to count down to Christmas and learn about its true meaning!

To help us prepare how much food is needed, please preregister by Friday, November 8 by completing the registration form below. If you have any questions, please contact Matt Rychener ([email protected]) at 419.335.7272 or Jennifer Grime ([email protected]) at 419.267.5266.

2019 Drive Fore Hope Reminder

Don’t forget! The 2019 “Drive Fore Hope” Charity Golf Scramble is right around the corner. Do you have your team signed up yet? We have put together a fun-filled day at Ironwood Golf Course in Wauseon, Ohio and hope to see you there!

Event Date:	Friday, May 24, 2019
Event Location:	Ironwood Golf Course, Wauseon, Ohio
Event Format:	4-Player Team Scramble
Event Cost:	$75 per Player ($300 per Team)