Tips for Easing Children’s Anxiety About the Coronavirus

During these difficult times with the coronavirus, closed schools, and the Stay at Home Order, many of our NHA students are having a great deal of anxiety, depression, and emotional concerns.

Here are a few tips for easing your children’ s anxiety about the coronavirus:

Get the facts about the virus, and talk with your children about it.
Ask them what they already know about it and what scares them about it.
Share that it is OK to be anxious and scared but that we are doing everything that we can as a family, school, and country to keep them safe.
Turn off the television and computers, and spend time together. Media overload may add to rather than reduce children’s anxiety.
With school closed, establish a new home routine to help them regain a sense of control (Wake up, get dressed, brush teeth, eat breakfast, go to a designated spot in the house for schoolwork, take a walk, finish schoolwork, eat lunch, etc.). Maintain a consistent bedtime and wake up time.
Eat healthy, and get enough sleep and exercise.
Encourage children to do something they enjoy as a stress break or to cope with an anxiety attack.
Help them to stay connected with their teacher, para, and classmates through google classes, phone calls, and teleconferences through Skype, Zoom, Facetime, or Google Meet, Hangout, or Class.
Help them write letters to family or friends, so they can look forward to getting the mail every day.
Stay positive. Talk about all the things people are doing together to help each other and to stay healthy.

If they are still having trouble talking to you or you don’t know what to say or do, please encourage them to reach out to someone whether that is their mental health counselor through a teleconference, a social worker over the phone, or the Teen Line website.

Please remind your kids that they are not alone!

2019-20 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 April 30, 2020.
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 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.

NHA Now Accepting Applications for 2020-21

New Horizons Academy is NOW accepting new special education student applications for the 2020-2021 school year for both its Wauseon and Holland/Springfield campuses. Call TODAY to begin the enrollment process for August’s classes.

We are very excited to be accepting applications for NEW special education students for the 2020-21 school year for our preschool to high school classes. If you are looking for the right special education placement, a place where your child feels like he or she fits in, consider New Horizons Academy (NHA).

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 class and program are made to meet the individual student’s needs. Please visit us, and see if we are the right fit for your special needs student.

NHA’s Wauseon & Holland Campuses:

Are regional preschool to 12th grade special education schools.
Have less than a 1:2 staff to student ratio.
Specialize in individualized, personalized education.
Provide strong academics, community involvement, life skills classes, vocational skills, work site placements, and job coaches.
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 (Categories 5 & 6) as payment in full.
Serve students from 9 counties and over 20 different school districts.

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, call Admissions Coordinator Ronda Rupp at 419-335-7272, email rondar@sarasgarden.org, or log onto newhorizonsacademy.org.

Thanks for our Thanksgiving Dinner!

Thank you, Wauseon Machine Employee Driven Charity (W.E. Care Fund) Committee, for making Thanksgiving SO SPECIAL for our New Horizons Academy (NHA) students! W.E. Care’s donation made this year’s Thanksgiving luncheon possible.

On November 25, all of NHA’s students will sit down together to share a traditional meal of turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, salad, corn, and a roll and share what they are TRULY THANKFUL for (No one needs to pack a lunch.). This is an opportunity for them to think about who is important in their lives and to truly share of themselves in decorating the hall or serving their fellow students and teachers. This is one of those school traditions, which helps us to remember and be grateful for such a loving, caring school family! To see pictures from last year’s Thanksgiving feast, click HERE.

Thank you, Wauseon Machine’s W.E. Care Fund, for helping our students to feel such a part of a caring, thankful community!

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 (mattr@sarasgarden.org) at 419.335.7272 or Jennifer Grime (grimejen@gmail.com) at 419.267.5266.

NHA to Open New Toledo Campus

Sara’s Garden is pleased to announce that it will be expanding its special needs educational and intervention services to the Greater Toledo Area with the opening of its second regional special needs school—New Horizons Academy—Springfield. Just like its Wauseon campus, the Springfield campus is dedicated to providing the highest quality of educational programming available and to empowering children with disabilities to recognize and optimize their full potential.

New Horizons Academy is a chartered, nonpublic school, serving preschool children through young adults (up to age 21)—transitioning from school to the work environment. New Horizons Academy began in 2012 with two students and has grown in just seven years to 100. Superintendent Gene Rupp explains the key to the school’s success, “Our special needs students are children first with all of the needs, desires, and feelings of children without disabilities. They are more like other children than different. Their disabilities are inconveniences that keep them from enjoying full lives, and therefore must be overcome or compensated for so that the children can grow and move out into the world. At New Horizons Academy, 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 class and program are made to meet the individual student’s needs.”

New Horizons Academy’s Wauseon campus serves special needs students from nine different Northwest Ohio counties and 22 school districts; and now, New Horizons Academy is ready to expand its services into the Greater Toledo Area by offering special education, intervention, and therapy services at its new location, 6201 Trust Drive in Holland.

Its Springfield campus will open its doors to students on Monday, September 9. A community-wide Open House will also be held on September 9 from 6-8:00 p.m.

New Horizons Academy is an applied behavioral analysis (ABA) school, which has created a unique, accepting and loving environment for all of its students and staff. Sara’s Garden wants to share this caring, compassionate, educational environment with a whole new batch of students. Unlike traditional classrooms, New Horizons Academy has an incredibly low staff to student ratio of 1 to 2 with all of our students on individual education plans (IEP’s). Personalized teaching and instruction are the keys to reaching many of our special needs students. Their classrooms are small. Their teachers know and care about them, and they don’t get lost in the rush. Our students are what matters!

“A young child with special needs in a regular classroom often finds himself as the only ‘problem’ in the class, always needing extra help and always being the different one,” explained principal Marty Friess. “At New Horizons Academy, this child has classmates, who do some things better than he does and classmates who do some things not as well. The child is not different or special; he is just one of the kids—free to develop an ‘I CAN’ attitude. This is what New Horizons Academy is all about. If this is what you and your special needs child is looking for, then look no farther. Please come visit and tour New Horizons Academy.”

Initially in Springfield, our primary focus will be on early intervention, preschool to second grade, middle school to high school students focusing on the importance of life and work skills, and 18-21 year old young adults transitioning from school to work with a heavy emphasis on vocational training and goals.

As a chartered, nonpublic school, New Horizons Academy accepts the Autism and Jon Peterson Special Needs Scholarships as payment in full from the Ohio Department of Education and also contracts with local school districts to serve their more severely affected autistic students. New Horizons Academy provides educational, aide, intervention, and therapy services as a part of its tuition and educational program.

For more information about New Horizons Academy or its Springfield Campus, please call or email the Springfield Director Tara Dumas at 419-335-7272 or tarad@sarasgarden.org or to set up a tour or to get information about enrolling your child in New Horizons Academy, please call or email Admissions Director Ronda Rupp at 419-335-7272 or email at rondar@sarasgarden.org.

You’re Invited to NHA’s Open Houses

Welcome Back to School with NHA Open Houses in Wauseon & Springfield!

New Horizons Academy (NHA) is so excited to welcome back its students, teachers, and staff to its Wauseon Campus at Sara’s Garden on August 14. NHA is so pleased to also announce the opening of its Springfield Campus, 6201 Trust Dr. in Holland on September 9. To mark the back to school season and to celebrate our regional special needs campuses, New Horizons Academy will be hosting its:

August 13: Annual Open House at 220 Lawrence Ave. in Wauseon from 6:00-8:00 p.m.
September 9: Inaugural Open House at 6201 Trust Dr. in Holland from 6:00-8:00 p.m.

To make the Open Houses a little less overwhelming for our special needs students, the Open Houses will have staggered start times with the preschoolers and elementary school-aged students, families, and friends coming from 6:00-6:45 p.m. and the middle school through our School to Work Transitional Classes (up to age 21) coming from 7:00-7:45 p.m. Friends, family, and the public are ALL INVITED to the NHA Wauseon Campus Open House on August 13 and the NHA Springfield Campus Open House on September 9.

Both NHA campuses will also be hosting Educators Open Houses and Tours on:

September 19: Educators Open House at 220 Lawrence Ave. in Wauseon from 10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
September 26: Educators Open House at 6201 Trust Dr. in Holland from 10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.

“Please join us in kicking off a GREAT YEAR at NHA in Wauseon and Springfield,” invited NHA Superintendent Gene Rupp. “We are looking forward to an exciting year and hope that you will join us on August 13 and/or September 9 and become a part of the excitement and growth that is New Horizons Academy!”

For more information on NHA or any of its Open Houses, please call the school office at 419-335-7272 or email katieh@sarasgarden.org

2019 NHA Graduation

New Horizons Academy would like to invite you to its High School Graduation Ceremony for the class of 2019!

Commencement Exercises:
Sunday, May 19, 2019 at 2:00 p.m.
New Horizons Academy
220 Lawrence Avenue
Wauseon, OH 43567

Please RSVP by May 10th to Katie Helberg at katieh@sarasgarden.org or 419-335-7272 ext. 220 so we can plan the appropriate seating for the number who will be attending.