Thank You Zeisloft Family Trust!

Through two funding cycles, the Zeisloft Family Trust has awarded Sara’s Garden and New Horizons Academy (NHA) close to $300,000 towards an exciting upcoming project at our Special Grounds vocational training center with the balance of funding going towards NHA’s inclusive indoor play area. Both projects will memorialize the Zeisloft Family, with its strong and lasting ties to the communities we serve in Northwest Ohio.

“Thank you and the Zeisloft Family Trusts for the very generous grants to support these projects at Special Grounds and New Horizons Academy! Your generosity and caring are amazing, and we are beyond humbled and grateful for the trustees generosity and faith in our mission!” shared Sara’s Garden CEO, Matthew Rychener.

The ultimate mission of Sara’s Garden and its regional special education program, New Horizons Academy, is to help its special needs students and young adults become as self-sufficient and independent as they can possibly be. The upcoming Special Grounds vocational center project will expand our current capability out into Northwest Ohio to reach additional special needs students, educate the community about the vocational needs of young adults with disabilities, promote the awareness that every community can and should support all of its students and community members, and would be named for and dedicated to the Zeisloft Family for its commitment to serving individuals and families with disabilities. This project will offer our students and other Northwest Ohio students vocational skills, job placement, financial success, career development, a sense of accomplishment, and hope for the future! Thank you to the Zeisloft Family Trust for partnering with us in making the future brighter for young adults with disabilities!

Educators know that play helps children, of all ability levels, increase their physical fitness, reduce obesity, gain emotional and mental mastery, lay the groundwork for creative thinking, promote cognitive development, reasoning, and the development of fine and gross motor skills, improve problem solving, and offer opportunities to try out new habits and behaviors.

With Northwest Ohio’s long, cold winters and torrential spring rains, our students have limited access to NHA’s outdoor playground, due to severe inclement weather. This greatly reduces their opportunities to be physically active in the colder months, because it is just too difficult for them to navigate the snowy and icy surfaces. With space now opening up through a building expansion, the Zeisloft Family Trust is helping to create an inclusive indoor play area at NHA. It will address the needs of typically developing children, as well as, children with neurological, intellectual, and physical disabilities, with areas and activities rich in sensory experiences, social interactions, and physical challenges. The play area would naturally expand and enhance both the recreational and therapeutic treatment for NHA’s special needs students.

We are so thankful and grateful to the Zeisloft Family Trust for establishing a lasting legacy of vocational, recreational, and therapeutic skill development for special needs children and youth through Sara’s Garden, New Horizons Academy and Special Grounds Coffee Co.! Thank you, Zeisloft Family Trust, for making the future brighter for children and young adults with disabilities!

Giving Tuesday Thanks

We are so grateful and beyond humbled by the support we received during this year’s Giving Tuesday 419 event.

Funds from this year’s Giving Tuesday gala went to support equipment, curriculum and supplies for our vocational training program at Special Grounds Coffee Co. Through your caring and support, over $50,000 was donated to Sara’s Garden, allowing us to continue to expand the opportunities to make a difference in the lives of our special needs children and their families and inspire change in Northwest Ohio!

Once again, the team at Everence created an amazing event that benefited countless charities and non-profits throughout Northwest Ohio. The total amount donated at the Giving Tuesday 419 gala for these organization was nearly $1.5 million dollars!

Thank you Everence and donors for your hard work and unbelievable generosity. We can not begin to adequately express our gratitude or describe what your support means to all of us here at Sara’s Garden, New Horizons Academy and Special Grounds Coffee Co.!

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.

2023 Summer Programs

Our 2023 Summer Enrichment programs are quickly approaching and we are currently taking registrations for both our Wauseon and Springfield locations.

2023 Summer Program Dates:

Wauseon: June 5-30 (Registration deadline is May 1)
Springfield: July 10 – August 4 (Registration deadline is June 1)

If you are considering either of these programs, now is the time to register and arrange funding.

Sara’s Garden offers amazing summer intervention programs for children with disabilities. These month-long programs deliver inclusive therapies that provide interventions for individuals with a variety of conditions and disabilities.

Our caring and experienced staff of licensed therapists, conductors and paraprofessionals create unique, intensive therapy-based programs that are tailored to the needs of each participant and are designed to enhance your child’s developmental skills. This approach not only helps your child to work towards greater independence, it also keeps the regression of skills and development that typically occurs over the summer months at bay.

Goals of these programs include:

Improving Interpersonal Skills:

Relationship building
Responding to his/her name
Learning the names of peers
Basic conversation skills
Behavioral skill development

Improving Fine and Gross Motor Skills:

Range of motion
Sitting and standing
Walking and transfers
Self feeding
Independent living skills

Improving Language Skills:

Vocabulary knowledge and understanding
Basic concepts
Following verbally presented directions
Improving story comprehension
Improve Reading/Writing Skills

Improving Social Skills:

Greetings
Turn Taking
Initiating communication
Informing and directing others
Requesting

Our summer intervention programs also provide support for children who use augmentative communication systems (low tech or high tech) who have language and literacy skills and need more experience with peer to peer social skills.

We serve clients with (but not limited to): ADHD, Autism Spectrum Disorder, CDKL5, Cerebral Palsy, Down Syndrome, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, Near Drowning, Seizure Disorders, Sensory Processing Disorders, Spina Bifida, Stroke and Traumatic Brain Injury.

Additional information is being compiled on potential funding and grant options for families in need of financial support.

For more information, please contact Ronda Rupp at 833.668.7272 or via email at [email protected].

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 [email protected].

Wheel of Purses 2023

Ladies, you’re not going to want to miss the 2023 Wheel of Purses!

Enjoy a fun filled Girl’s Night Out with your friends while playing for fabulous purses from the designers you love. Win designer handbags by Coach, Michael Kors, Kate Spade, Ralph Lauren and Dooney & Bourke. Over 30 handbags are available to win!

Get your tickets reserved now!

Event Date:	Thursday, July 13, 2023
Event Location:	Founder’s Hall at Sauder Village, Archbold, Ohio
Event Time:	Doors open at 5:30 p.m. Event begins at 6:30 p.m.
Event Cost:	$50 Single Ticket \| $400 Reserved Table of 8 Reserved table includes a meat, cheese & cracker tray

PURCHASE TICKETS

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Wait till you see what we have in store for you this year… more purses, more games, more surprises, more chances to win and more fun!

Each Wheel of Purses admission ticket includes two (2) drink tickets good for coffee, lemonade, soft drinks and/or water.

Event will also feature:

Raffles and door prizes
50/50 drawings

Available for purchase:

Beer, wine and mixed drinks
Appetizers and snacks

Open to all ages. Must present ID to be served alcohol.

All proceeds from this event will be used towards the purchase of therapy equipment, vocational supplies and educational curriculum for our clients and students at Sara’s Garden and New Horizons Academy. This funding provides invaluable resources to the children and clients we serve.

Sponsorship Opportunities

Purse Sponsor – $250

Includes purse sponsor signage and program recognition.

Event Sponsor – $400

Includes event sponsor signage and program recognition.

Title Sponsor – $900

Includes title sponsor signage and program recognition.
Includes one (1) reserved VIP table for eight (8) attendees.
Each VIP table attendee will also receive a special gift.

For additional information regarding tickets, reservations or sponsorship opportunities please contact Tara at 419.335.SARA or via email at [email protected].

SPONSOR EVENT

2023 “Drive Fore Hope” Charity Golf Scramble

Sara’s Garden would like to invite you to participate in the 2023 “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 26, 2023
Event Location:	Ironwood Golf Course, Wauseon, Ohio
Event Format:	4-Player Team Scramble
Event Cost:	$75 per Player ($300 per Team)

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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 at NHA Career Center
2:00 p.m.	Awards

ONLINE REGISTRATION

Partnership Opportunities

Platinum Title Partner – $1,500

Includes one foursome, event promotion, platinum title partner signage and program recognition.

Gold Event Partner – $900

Includes one foursome, gold event partner activity signage and program recognition.

Silver Contest Partner – $500

Includes one foursome, silver contest partner signage and program recognition.

Bronze Meal Partner – $350

Includes bronze meal partner signage and program recognition.

O2 Tee Partner – $100

Includes O2 tee partner signage and program recognition.

ONLINE SPONSOR SIGNUP

For additional information regarding partnership opportunities or team registration for the Sara’s Garden “Drive Fore Hope” Charity Golf Scramble please contact Tara 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!

Support Mary Kraft

As many of you know, Mary was born with a brain malformation called Lissencephaly, which means “smooth brain”. It is a neuronal migration disorder where the brain stopped forming correctly at about fourteen weeks gestation. This malformation causes intellectual and physical disability as well has difficult to treat seizures.

Mary’s journey for the past ten years has been quite a rollercoaster of medical mysteries, terrifying lows and incredible comebacks. We discovered her malformation at 35 weeks in utero. Her birth was expected to be fraught with danger and a great deal of medical intervention. She arrived, however, perfect and beautiful with a 9/9 APGAR and, with the exception of an MRI showing otherwise, zero evidence of her malformation.

The seizures didn’t begin until she was five months old. After a rocky first two years of seizures and medications with awful side effects, we were finally able to reign in the seizing and started intense Feldenkrais and ABM therapies, horseback riding and early intervention. Her personality emerged as cute, funny and tough as nails.

Mary enjoyed good health, good seizure control and astounding development. She had progressed to the point where she could walk independently, speak with an ever-growing vocabulary and recognize numbers, colors and most letters. Unfortunately, Mary developed some new health issues and seizures around her ninth birthday that were causing her to lose much of her developmental gains. The changes that came with growing up are triggering both structural and hormonal imbalances that are ravaging her body and her brain.

We have pulled out all the stops to try to get a handle on this new medical mystery. After countless tests, medications, doctors, treatments and a new diagnosis (Spina bifida occulta), we have a somewhat improved management with diet and medication. We are now trying to do everything we can to help her recover from the injury that the seizures have inflicted on her brain and possibly heal some of the damage to her organs.

Over the years I had often heard about the healing power of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT). We believed this treatment could be crucial for Mary’s development. In many cases, HBOT has improved the client’s fine and gross motor skills, cognitive ability, vision, physical healing and seizure control. We learned there is a non-profit facility right here in Northwest Ohio that we could go to called Sara’s Garden. With the help from donations from friends and family, Mary received more than forty dives over the past year in the hyperbaric oxygen chamber at Sara’s Garden. The results have been life-changing! Her seizures are reduced by almost 90%. Her language and cognition have improved and she is gaining back her ability to walk without assistance. We would like to continue building on this success and take her back for another round of treatments.

Unfortunately, in the United States, insurance companies do not recognize HBOT as being therapeutic for the treatment of brain injuries or seizures and therefore will not cover the cost for treatments despite the positive stories of tremendous benefits it provides. That is why we could really use your help. HBOT for Mary’s condition is only $100 per treatment at Sara’s Garden (as opposed to $1,500-2,500 per treatment at a hospital). Since, our goal for her is to receive at least one round of 40 HBOT treatments, that cost adds up quickly.

If you could assist us with the cost (or even just part of the cost) of a single $100 HBOT treatment it would help reduce our overall expenses greatly. 100% of the funds received go into an account in Mary’s name and will be used for her treatments. Any contribution made would be considered a tax-deductible donation as Sara’s Garden is a 501(c)(3) non-profit facility. Checks can be made out to Sara’s Garden with Mary’s name on a sheet of paper accompanying the check. Please do NOT write her name directly on the check. You can also donate online via credit card by clicking on the DONATE NOW button below.

We appreciate any contribution you can make toward Mary’s healing journey. We are so grateful for your support

Traci Kraft

DONATE NOW

Sara’s Garden is a 501(c)(3) organization. Your charitable contribution is tax deductible under 501(c)(3) of the IRS code, to the extent allowed by law. A receipt will be sent to you after your pledge has been received to use for tax purposes.

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 [email protected].
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.

Support Ethan Pawlowski

Ethan was a senior in high school looking forward to graduation. He helped coach his brother’s baseball and football teams, worked a part time job, loved video games and hanging out with buddies, helped neighbors shovel snow and carry groceries, and was just full of life and genuine kindness.

On March 10th, 2021 his life changed in an instant. Ethan was on the way to school when the tie rod on his car failed, causing him to lose control and ricochet off of a guardrail into the path of a school bus. The bus could not stop in time and drove over Ethan’s car, crushing most of it and trapping Ethan inside. Ethan had to be cut out of the vehicle and was transported by ambulance to the hospital.

Ethan had a broken wrist, fractures to vertebrae in his neck and shoulders, and significant damage to his brain. Any movement, light, sound or touch caused Ethan’s pressure to spike so we had to keep his room dark and quiet to try and stabilize him as best we could. Ethan was placed on a ventilator, put in a spine and neck stabilizing brace, and put in a medically induced coma to try and give his brain the best chance to heal.

Doctors performed a surgery on Ethan to remove a piece of skull in hopes of relieving the pressure on his brain. An MRI then revealed that there were countless bleeds of all different sizes, bruising, and tears in multiple areas of Ethan’s brain still showing up several days after the accident. Over the next two weeks Ethan was gradually pulled off of the sedation he was under and began showing strong brain activity.

By the end of March, Ethan began the process of getting off of ventilation and starting therapy. He had an amazing team and within a few weeks was able to remove his brace, get off the ventilator, do a swallow study to begin eating food, and on May 4th spoke for the first time since the accident. His first words were ” Mom I love you so much.” Ethan was discharged from the hospital a day before his 19th birthday and has been home ever since. He continues to work hard in physical, occupational, and speech therapies showing a tremendous amount of strength and courage.

We are so thankful for all of the doctors, nurses, caregivers and friends that have helped us through such a difficult time. We know that Ethan has a long, difficult journey ahead of him so we continue to search for every possible treatment option available in order to give him the greatest opportunity for a bright and independent future.

We have recently discovered Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) and learned that it has been extremely successful in treating people who suffer from Traumatic Brain Injury. In many cases, it has improved the client’s fine and gross motor skills, speech, thinking (cognition), memory, physical healing, etc. We’ve recently learned that there is a non-profit facility right here in Northwest Ohio that we can go to called Sara’s Garden that specializes in working with clients with traumatic brain injuries.

Unfortunately, in the United States insurance companies do not recognize HBOT as being therapeutic for the treatment of TBI and therefore will not cover the cost for treatments. That is why we could really use your help. HBOT for TBI is only $100 per hour at Sara’s Garden. However, since our plan is for him to receive at least 40 HBOT treatments that cost adds up quickly.

If you could assist us with the cost (or even just part of the cost) of a single $100 HBOT treatment it would help reduce our overall expenses greatly. 100% of the funds received go into an account in Ethan’s name and will be used for his treatments. Any contribution made would be considered a tax-deductible donation as Sara’s Garden is a 501(c)(3) non-profit facility. Checks can be made out to Sara’s Garden with Ethan’s name on a sheet of paper accompanying the check. Please do NOT write his name directly on the check. You can also donate online via credit card by clicking on the DONATE NOW button below.

Thank you so much for considering the support of Ethan’s treatments at Sara’s Garden. Our hope is by being able to receive hyperbaric treatments his recovery process will be even better and he can get back to enjoying all of the things he loved.

The Family of Ethan Pawlowski

DONATE NOW

Sara’s Garden is a 501(c)(3) organization. Your charitable contribution is tax deductible under 501(c)(3) of the IRS code, to the extent allowed by law. A receipt will be sent to you after your pledge has been received to use for tax purposes.