NHA Students Shine at Christmas Musical

NHA Students Taught Us NOT to Be Grumps (or Grumpy) and to Share the Spirit of Christmas!

Thank you to our all-star musical New Horizons Academy (NHA) students and cast members, who delivered outstanding performances on December 13 at Pettisville Missionary Church when they reminded us all NOT to be grumpy or grumps in the 2022 Annual NHA Christmas Musical, “The Grumps of Ring-A-Ding Town!”

Under the direction of NHA Music Teacher and Christmas Musical Director Melissa Valentine, over 100 of our special needs students sang, danced, and taught us all about the importance of caring for each other and keeping the Christmas spirit alive. In the musical, 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 return, the bells of Ring-A-Ding Town begin to ring again; and we are all reminded NOT to be grumps or grumpy and that miracles really can and do happen!

This inspirational, Christmas musical was made possible by our talented students and dedicated NHA staff and teachers, especially Music Teacher and Director Melissa Valentine. 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 preschool to high school youth through the entire Christmas show. Melissa was truly our role model on sharing and spreading the Christmas spirit and not letting the grumpy grumps spoil the holiday season!

If you missed this special Christmas show, check out all of the photos on New Horizons Academy’s Facebook page HERE or check out our YouTube channel for your own special, encore performance HERE.

NHA Now Accepting Applications for 2023-24

All three New Horizons Academy (NHA) locations are NOW accepting new student applications for the 2022-2023 school year! NHA is so pleased to announce that it is accepting new student applications for its regional special education PK-12 school campus at 220 Lawrence Ave. in Wauseon, its Greater Toledo Area campus at 6201 Trust Dr. in Holland—just off of Airport Highway, and at its new Career Center and Special Grounds Coffee Shop at 854 S. Shoop Ave. in Wauseon. Currently, NHA serves special education students from over 25 different school districts from across nine Northwest Ohio counties. Call TODAY to find out more about NHA and its academic and vocational programs. Classes begin in August, so begin the enrollment process NOW.

If you are looking for the right special education placement for your preschool to high school student, a place where your child feels like he or she fits in, consider NHA in Wauseon, our Holland or Springfield Township campus, or through the new Career Center. At NHA, kids come first. We exist for our students; our students do not exist for the school. Students don’t have to fit into the classes. The classes and programs are designed to meet the student’s individual needs. Please visit us today, and see if we are the right fit for your special needs student.

NHA’s Wauseon & Springfield Township Campuses:

Are regional preschool to 12th grade special education schools
Have a 1:2—staff to student ratio
Specialize in individualized, personalized education
Provide strong academics, community involvement, life skills classes, and vocational training
Offer early intervention, conductive education (CE), sensory integration, occupational therapy, speech/language pathology & music instruction
Participate in the College Credit Plus (CCP) Program
Are Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) Schools
Accept both the Autism & Jon Peterson Scholarships as payment in full.

NHA’s NEW Career Center & Special Grounds Coffee Shop:

Prides itself on small classroom sizes (4-7 students)
Works with young adults up to age 21
Targets functional academics, vocational skills training, and work study placements
Provides on-site work study placements through its Special Grounds Coffee Shop including kitchen and food prep, counter and customer service work, and maintenance and cleaning
Helps transition high school students and special needs young adults into community work study programs
Provides job coaching and transportation to community work sites
Community work site partners include Ace Hardware, Chief Supermarkets, the Fulton County Airport, Goodwill Industries, and the Home Restaurant with others coming on weekly.

Our mission is to help your child achieve the greatest independence possible through early intervention programs, classes, community activities, life skills training, vocational placements, and job coaching.

Steps to Enrollment:

Call the school for more information.
Submit a copy of your child’s IEP & ETR for review.
Schedule a school tour, interview, and student assessment.
If accepted, complete student enrollment paperwork, and provide proof of residency.
Complete and accept the Autism or Jon Peterson Scholarship.

For more information on New Horizons Academy or to schedule a tour, contact Admissions Coordinator Ronda Rupp at 419-335-7272 or via email at rondar@sarasgarden.org.

2022-23 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.

DONATE NOW

COST: $90.00

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

DONATE NOW

COST: $30.00

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

DONATE NOW

Advertisements are requested to be received by April 30, 2023.
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.

NHA Christmas Musical Reminder

Don’t forget!

On Tuesday, December 13, 2022, the students of New Horizons Academy in Wauseon will be presenting “The Grumps of Ring-A-Ding Town,” a Christmas musical, and other musical numbers.

As in years past, our Christmas musical will take place at Pettisville Missionary Church, in Pettisville, Ohio at 6:00 p.m.

Each student will be offered a part in the show, so please mark your calendars for this exciting event!

More detailed information will be coming home with the students in the next few weeks… but for now, just SAVE THE DATE (and tell your friends)!

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.