2022 NHA Christmas Musical

Be sure to save the date for the 2022 NHA Christmas musical! This year, the students will be performing “The Grumps of Ring-A-Ding Town”.

The bells of ol’ Ring-A-Ding Town have stopped ringing because the townspeople have completely lost their holiday spirit. With all of the pressures of the season, they have become so grumpy that even the bells refuse to ring. When a severe winter storm pounds the village with ice, wind and snow, the grumpy citizens are reminded how much they need each other and how rewarding it can be to share and care for one another in the true spirit of the season. When peace, love and joy returns, the bells of Ring-A-Ding Town begin to ring again.

Event Date:	Tuesday, December 13, 2022
Event Location:	Pettisville Missionary Church, Pettisville, Ohio
Event Time:	6:00 p.m.

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You’re not going to want to miss this memorable holiday event!

Thank You Donors!

Sara’s Garden is SO blessed by caring Northwest Ohio organizations and businesses which are willing to help support our special needs kids and their families! A big thank you goes out to the Ohio Elks Cerebral Palsy (CP) Fund, the Lucas County Board of Developmental Disabilities (DD), the Dollar General (DG) Literacy Foundation, and members of the Holland/Springfield Rotary Club for all you do for Sara’s Garden, New Horizons Academy and all of its special needs students and their family members!

Thank You to the Ohio Elks Association, its CP Fund, and the Toledo-Sylvania Elks Lodge #53! The Ohio Elks CP Fund donated $13,700 for rehabilitative and conductive education equipment for our special needs students with CP and other neuromuscular disorders at our New Horizons Academy (NHA)-Springfield Township Campus and Greater Toledo Area. The lifts, swings, pads, and bars will assist our students from across Northwest Ohio with their conductive education (CE), occupational therapy (OT), and daily life skills needs, especially helping them with their changing and toileting routines. This equipment is very important in meeting the therapeutic, treatment, and independent care needs of our special needs students and Summer Skills Camp participants, who are from 25 different school districts and nine different counties from across Northwest Ohio.

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 CP. We are so grateful to the Ohio Elks Association, the CP Fund, 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 or log onto https://www.elks.org/lodges/home.cfm?LodgeNumber=53

For the first time ever, the Lucas County Board of Developmental Disabilities (DD) awarded Sara’s Garden a $10,544 Mini Summer Camp Grant to purchase four Rifton Adaptive Tricycles for our Springfield Summer Camp’s CE Program. They will be used to meet the physical education and wellness needs of our special education students.

Rifton Adaptive Tricycles are created and customized to meet the needs of children with disabilities. The frame, seat, handlebar, and backrest pad make bicycle riding possible, comfortable, and easier for children with disabilities. The tricycles are physically adaptable for kindergarten to high school students with a wide range of physical and neurological disabilities.

The benefits of adaptive tricycles are endless. They include lower extremity strengthening, reciprocal leg motion patterning, balancing skills, using visual, spatial perception for steering, and social interaction with peers including building relationships, modeling dignity, sharing ordinary spaces and activities, and making choices together. These Rifton Adaptive Tricycles will certainly improve our students’ physical, emotional, and social health. For more information on the Lucas County Board of DD or any its programs or services, call 419-380-4000 or log onto https://lucasdd.org/.

Though changing their format for meetings, the members of the Holland/Springfield Rotary Club are staying active and involved in their communities. The Rotary Club members donated $1,000 to help support the vocational and job skill needs of our NHA-Springfield Campus students. Their donation, along with over $15,000 of vocational funding, helped to cover the cost of a motorized coffee cart, which will be used to practice and develop vocational skills while meeting the morning caffeine needs of NHA parents and area businesses. Our middle school, high school, and PACE students will be selling and delivering our own Special Grounds Coffee in and around our Springfield Campus. Watch our New Horizons Academy Facebook page for our Opening Coffee Day!

With Dollar Generals across Northwest Ohio participating in the Summer Literacy Grant Program, Sara’s Garden is so grateful to the Dollar General Literacy Foundation for supporting the development of its Special Needs Library Section with a $3,000 grant, which will be used by summer camp participants and NHA students throughout the school year. The literacy focus is on meeting the educational and intervention needs of students with specific learning needs including those preschool children to young adults who may use braille, large print, sensory-processing, tactile, and low-literacy books and educational materials. They will be utilized for one-on-one, individualized reading intervention, small group story time activities, and for reading comprehension assessments.

Special recognition needs to be given to NHA teacher Kelsey Barton and librarian Melissa Valentine for assessing and evaluating the special literacy needs of all of our NHA students and for developing a wish list for our Special Needs Library Section. Thank you, Kelsey, Melissa, and the Dollar General Literacy Foundation for meeting the specific reading and learning needs of our kiddoes! For more information about the Dollar General Literacy Foundation, log onto https://www.dgliteracy.org/.

Sara’s Garden and New Horizons Academy rely so heavily on the generosity and caring of Northwest Ohio businesses organizations, so please take a moment during your busy day to thank the Ohio Elks Cerebral Palsy Fund, the Toledo-Sylvania Elks Lodge #53, the Lucas County Board of Developmental Disabilities, the Dollar General Literacy Foundation, and members of the Holland/Springfield Rotary Club for all they do for Sara’s Garden and New Horizons Academy!

Donations continue to be accepted and fundraising efforts continue for the inclusive outdoor playground at our NHA-Springfield Township Campus in Holland. The goal is for our special needs children and students from the Greater Toledo Area to play on, enjoy, and utilize a multi-sensory, fully accessible, playground with therapy space for physical education programs, play groups, conductive education classes, recess, and rehabilitative activities. For more information on the playground project or to donate to it, please call 419-335-4NHA or email info@sarasgarden.org.

NHA Students Head Back to School

NHA Students Head Back to School with Open Houses on August 15 & 16!

We are so excited to welcome back to school all of our New Horizons Academy (NHA) students and parents at our Annual Open Houses on August 15 at our Springfield Campus in Holland and on August 16 at our Wauseon and Career Center Campuses!

To make the Open Houses a little less overwhelming for our special needs students and to give them and their parents more time to find their rooms and to talk with their teachers, principal, therapists, conductors, and classmates, NHA will be staggering its open house schedule by age groups across the two nights.

Monday, August 15
Springfield Campus—6201 Trust Dr., Holland

6:00-6:30 p.m.—STARS Preschool Classes
6:30-7:00 p.m.—Developmental Elementary Classes
7:00-7:30 p.m.—Middle School & High School Classes
7:30-8:00 p.m.—Conductive Education (CE) & PACE Program

Tuesday, August 16
Wauseon Campus—220 Lawrence Ave.

5:30-6:00 p.m.—STARS Preschool Classes
6:00-6:30 p.m.—Developmental & Elementary Classes
6:30-7:00 p.m.—CE, Room 115 & Middle School Classes

Wauseon Campus—620 W. Leggett St.

7:00-7:30 p.m.—Junior High & High School Classes

Career Center—854 S. Shoop Ave.

7:30-8:00 p.m.—Career Center Program

NHA Principal Marty Friess wants to extend a special invite to all of our students and parents, “Please join us in kicking off another GREAT YEAR at New Horizons Academy in Wauseon and Springfield. We have missed all of our students over the summer, and we are so looking forward to seeing everyone at our Open Houses and starting back to school on Wednesday, August 17. Please join us at the Open Houses and help to get this year off on the right foot.”

NHA still has a few openings for this school year and is still accepting students in select classrooms at its regional special needs campuses. Classes do begin August 17; so if you are interested in enrolling your child, please contact the school today to get the enrollment process started.

At New Horizons Academy, all of our classes and programs are designed to meet the individual needs of our special education students, including their academic, behavioral, and social needs. NHA accepts both the Autism and Jon Peterson Scholarships as payment in full for our students’ tuition and therapy services during the school day. Cost is not and should not be the reason that special needs children miss out on the early intervention (EI), special education, or vocational training experiences that they so desperately need.

Is NHA Right for Your Child?

Regional special education classes for students aged 3-21 from over 25 different school districts from across Northwest Ohio’s 9 different counties,
With less than a 1:2—staff to student ratio,
Individualized, personalized education,
Strong academics, community involvement, life skills classes, vocational skills, work site placements, and job coaches,
Helps students to reach their full potential and become as independent as they can possibly be,
Including EI, CE, sensory integration, occupational therapy (OT), speech/language pathology (SLP), music instruction, and the College Credit Plus (CCP) Program,
Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) School,
Vocational opportunities through the Special Grounds Coffee Shop & Coffee Cart

Time is short. The next school year is just around the corner with Open Houses on August 15 & 16; so, call Admissions Coordinator Ronda Rupp at 419-335-7272 or email her today at rondar@sarasgarden.org to schedule a tour and get the admissions process started.

For more information on NHA or on any of its open houses, please call the school offices:

Wauseon—419-335-7272
Springfield—567-703-1322.

NHA Welcomes Koo Koo Kangaroo

After months of fundraising including a Spaghetti Supper, Spirit Wear sales, and donations, New Horizons Academy (NHA) is pleased and honored to welcome the early intervention group, Koo Koo Kanga Roo, on May 6th at 10:30 a.m. at Pettisville Missionary Church. Koo Koo Kanga Roo will be entertaining all of the students at both NHA’s Wauseon and Springfield Campuses.

According to their web site, Koo Koo Kanga Roo was created by Bryan Atchison and Neil Olstad in 2008 in Winona, Minnesota. After being in a campus rock band for the first few years of college, the guys created Koo Koo as an experimental project for St. Mary’s University’s annual battle of the bands. The idea centered around crowd participation, comedy and dance music, stretching the concept of a what a “band” could be. Later on, Koo Koo began creating “dance-a-long” videos (initially as something of a joke) for their songs in order to help demonstrate the moves that audiences would need to know at their shows. These videos were unexpectedly a hit with elementary school teachers, which led Koo Koo into the world of children’s music and becoming a “real” kids band.

NHA’s students are so looking forward to seeing, hearing, and dancing along with Koo Koo Kanga Roo. Fundraising Chair Laura Vasko, Committee Chair Olivia Brink, and Community Outreach Coordinator Tara Dumas all would like to thank all of the staff who helped with the fundraising and planning efforts, and they would like to send out a special thank you to the following sponsors and donors:

Meijer—Central Ave—Store #117
Mossburg Family
Bishop Family
Cardenas Family
American Legion, Bert G Taylor Post 300
Beck Family
Chestnut Family
Otis Family
Anonymous (3)

For more information on Koo Koo Kanga Roo or to check out their videos before their May 6th performance, log onto https://kookookangaroo.com/

NHA Barbershop

Many children with special needs, learning difficulties, or sensory issues, experience difficulties coping with important daily life activities such as getting a haircut. Some children get very upset and refuse to go to a barber shop/hair stylist. Others are only able to tolerate a very brief visit to the hair stylist. This seemingly simple activity can be a challenging and frustrating experience for everyone.

For years, we have dreamed of setting up a life skills hair salon lab. Enter our angel with barber shears, Page Green! Paige recently approached Marty, asking if he was aware of any places she could volunteer her time cutting hair. As a matter of fact, we did!

The purpose of this real life, life skills lab is to reduce the child’s anxiety about this important activity and help reinforce the desired and appropriate behavior from the student when getting their hair cut in a positive, upbeat way.

This week we had our first student sessions to test out our new lab and it was a huge success. Parents will be able to sign their children up for the program and provide input and suggestions on how they would like their hair cut and styled.

Now we just have two things lacking: a name and salon decor. We are having a contest with our classrooms to decide the name for our new salon and asking students to create artwork that we can use to decorate it.

We would like to thank Ivan Hite and John Loar for donating the salon equipment needed to make this lab a reality!

If you are experiencing challenges with your child when it is time to get a haircut, please let us know. We are more than happy to provide you with some tips and strategies that may help make the experience less stressful!

2022 NHA Graduation Planned

New Horizons Academy (NHA) would like to congratulate its very first Springfield Campus Graduates! Way to go, Class of 2022!

NHA is so pleased and proud to announce that its 2022 Graduation Ceremony will be held on Saturday, May 21 at 10:00 a.m. at the Springfield Campus, 6201 Trust Drive, Holland, Ohio. The graduates are asked to arrive by 9:00 a.m.

“We are so proud of our first class of high school graduates! After just a few short years as a new school in the Greater Toledo-area, it is amazing to see our first set of graduates cross the stage and accept their diplomas,” shared NHA Principal Marty Friess.

The graduating Class of 2022 includes John “Wyatt” Serrato and Christian Jadwisiak. Wyatt is the son of Suzanne and John Serrato, Jr. Springfield Local Schools is his home school district, where he participated on the high school golf team. Wyatt has also been active in Lucas County Special Olympics and helped the D2 Basketball Team defeat the Columbus Comets and become the Ohio State Champions.

Christian is the son of Jeffrey and Christina Jadwisiak. Christian’s home school district is also Springfield Local Schools; and before enrolling in NHA, he attended Summit Academy of Toledo.

Christian completed his NHA coursework in December and began working part-time while Wyatt has participated in part-time employment and Work Study for the last year. They are both looking forward to graduating in May.

Congratulations to our graduates! We truly wish you the best, and we hope that everyone, who is available, will come out on Saturday, May 21 at 10:00 a.m. to celebrate their accomplishments with us.

A Pirate Christmas

A Pirate Christmas stole hearts and shared the spirit of Christmas!

After a one year hiatus due to COVID, New Horizons Academy’s annual Christmas musical returned to the Pettisville Missionary Church stage on December 14, 2021. The musical featured pirates and elves stealing our hearts and sharing the spirit of Christmas in A Pirate Christmas: The Musical by John Jacobson and Roger Emerson.

The sentiment heard over and over throughout the evening was “I’m so glad to see our kids back up on the stage. They are true stars and inspirations to us all!”

Just like the exhausted elves in the musical had to confront the rollicking pirates to find their inspiration and Christmas spirit, NHA’s special needs kids confronted their anxiety, fears, nerves, and stage fright to show us all the true meaning of courage and Christmas.

The contingent of vacationing elves was led by Head Elf Rebecca Myers and the legendary White Beard (aka Santa Claus) Josiah Acevedo while the salty crew of pirates were led by the Pirate Captain Anne Deffenbaugh and the Tiny Pirate Vivian Beck as together, they discovered what true treasure really is.

Our inspirational, preschool to high school cast members included:

Elves—Odin Tressler, Jeremiah Hernandez, Bruce Babcock, Ruby Snider, Danny Halmi, Annabelle Buehrer, Temperence Gillen, Jase Tressler, Orion Bailey-Lacy, Remington Shulters, Chance Zolman, Chase Thompson, Raylan Holbrook, Kyson Davidson, Axl McCarthy, Molly Boylan, Mark Jacobs, Danielle Tillson, Nadia Hancher, Breya Zolman, Clara Hollo, Eric Spiller, Joseph Green, Jimmy Forrest, Abbie Thomas, Cierra Flores, Lily Ringler, Sam Allen, Justin Bauer, Grayson Snider, and Michael Graham with Reindeer Luke Chambers and Jackson Snider.
Tiny Pirates—Colt Tammarine, Elena Smith, Ella Sancrant, Silas Johnson, Samuel Jimenez, Caleb Martin, Aliza Murray, Derek Ramey, Jensen Davenport, Owen Lewis, Tyler Shelton, Draven Tressler, Gavin Appel, Maverick McCarthy, Flynn Gallagher, William Ash, and Dakota Bricker.
Pirates—Isaiah Canales, Darien Homan, Levi Bettinger, Jackson Steiner (and parrot), Eli Saneholtz, Alexander Aguirre, Ben Rickenberg, Kamil Plaza, Seamus Brookes, Ethan Pieper, Taylar Alpaugh, Ashlyn Impton, Cole Hicks, Christian Lee, Izzy Armas, Liberty Wilson, Isiah Anders, Sterling Snider, Jaedyn Knight, Elizabeth Heberling, Auron Tanksley, Dominic Petz, Emma Wymer, Julie Stiff, Mason Rego, Syndel Barker, Cadince Ramirez, and Josh Parran.

Together, they performed Island Christmas; Pirates All Are We; Give and Take; Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Boots; He’s a Pirate; It’s Cool To Be Cool; Christmas Joy; Blimey Carols; and Silent Night.

In addition to the cast of elves and pirates, NHA students served as:

Channel 1 News Casters—Noah Nagel, Gabe Hobby, Kyler Campbell, Daymon Plassman, and Tyler Davidoff
Living Nativity Members—Omira Santillanes, Mark Jacobs, Cole Hicks, Ashlyn Impton, Ruby Snider, Jaedyn Knight, Emma Wymer, Danielle Tillson, Beaux Barrett, Lily Ringler, Christian Lee, Josh Parran, and Mason Rego.
Backstage and Lobby Assistants—Noah Nagel, Ava Keim, Tony Conti, Chase Burmeister, Gavin Leal, Alex Williams, Jackson Snider, Hannah Engler, Chloe Ruhnke, and Justin Tanksley.

This inspirational, Christmas musical was made possible by our dedicated NHA staff and teachers, especially Music Teacher Melissa Valentine. This was her creation and brain child. 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. 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 North Star, leading the way to Christmas!

If you missed this special Christmas production, check out our photos on Facebook or log onto our YouTube channel for your own special, encore performance.

2021-22 NHA Yearbook Sponsorship

We are so thankful to our sponsors for making this past year’s yearbook project possible.

Our goal is to once again provide our students and their parents with this very special memento. We hope to raise funds through sponsors in order to keep the costs of the yearbooks as low as possible, so that more students and their families will be able to afford one.

We invite you to consider being a sponsor of this very special project!

We also gladly accept general donations for those not interested in being recognized as sponsors.

COST: $150.00

This level of sponsorship includes a 3.75″ x 4.25″ (approx.) color advertisement in the yearbook, recognition on our website and recognition on social media with a link to your business’ social media page or website.

COST: $90.00

This level of sponsorship includes a business card sized color advertisement in the yearbook and recognition on our website.

COST: $30.00

This level of sponsorship includes your business or name listed in the yearbook and website.

SPONSORSHIP NOTES

Advertisements must be received by March 31, 2022.
Ads can be emailed in .jpg/.jpeg format to karab@sarasgarden.org.
Ads may be dropped off at Sara’s Garden or New Horizons Academy.

Sara’s Garden is a 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization and your donation is tax-deductible within the guidelines of U.S. law. To claim a donation as a deduction on your U.S. taxes, please keep your email donation receipt as your official record. We’ll send it to you upon successful completion of your donation.

Save the Date for the NHA Christmas Musical

Save the date for Tuesday, December 14! You’re not going to want to miss this ye mateys!

The kiddos at NHA’s Wauseon campus will be presenting their annual Christmas musical: A Pirate Christmas!

After missing last year due to unfortunate COVID restrictions, this year’s musical will be an Elves vs. Pirates event as they try to figure out what Christmas is all about!

Please get this date on your calendar and plan to be available from approximately 5:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. that evening. The musical will once again be held at Pettisville Missionary Church. Obviously we will be monitoring the ever-changing state and health department COVID guidelines and keep everyone informed of any potential issues in scheduling.

If you are new to the NHA family and aren’t familiar with our musicals, ask someone who was here in either 2018 or 2019 – they have been a huge success and our students absolutely love them!

NHA COVID Update

New Horizons Academy (NHA) is committed to the health and safety of our students and staff, and we will do everything in our power to keep them safe! As we begin the second nine weeks of school, we continue to follow the recommendations of the 2021-22 COVID-19 Health and Prevention Guidance for Ohio K-12 Schools from the Ohio Department of Health and the Ohio Department of Education.

This school year, we have continued to work extremely hard to minimize in-school coronavirus transmission and to keep our students in-person at NHA. We have instituted a mask-recommended rather than a mask-mandated environment along with continued social distancing, frequent hand washing, hand sanitizing, rigorous cleaning, and grade-level pods. We have been remarkably successful with just 6 individuals testing positive for COVID-19:

1 student and 1 staff member at our Springfield Campus
2 students and 1 staff member at our Career Center
1 staff member at our Wauseon Campus

Recently, the state of Ohio has seen a decline in new coronavirus cases, and we would like to see that trend continue. To do that, we are asking you to continue to:

Keep your children home when they are sick
Remind them to wash their hands often with soap and water
Encourage them to carry and use hand sanitizer
Regularly clean and disinfect frequently touched surfaces
Socially distance at community and group events

With Thanksgiving and Christmas just around the corner, we want all of our families to celebrate together and celebrate safely. Thank you for helping us to keep our students and staff healthy and safe this school year!