At the Arc of The St. Johns we support The Arc of Florida’s initiative to end the use of the R-Word in referring to people with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. In an effort to raise community awareness throughout St. Johns County we are featuring one of the following 4 public service announcements throughout the coming weeks in The St. Augustine Record. Look for each and read more about the “End the R-Word in Florida” campaign at www.norword.org.
THE PUTTERS EVENT FOR TOMORROW HAS BEEN POSTPONED. A NEW DATE WILL BE ANNOUNCED SOON.
The prospects for inclement weather for tomorrow’s event are high enough to postpone The Putters until another date. The wonderful folks at the World Golf Hall of Fame have been extremely accommodating with everything for this tournament. But they can’t help us with the weather. We don’t have sufficient shelter to take cover should we start and need to delay play. We will work together for an alternate date, which will not take place before the Hall of Fame Induction or The Players Championship.
Donna, Diane, Deb and others who have gathered up some great stuff for the event, silent auction, etc., will find a safe place for everything and be ready to roll it out for the new date.
The health of our clients with IDD and all of the families and friends is most important. Thank you for the understanding and stay tuned for more details.
This year’s Rhythm & Ribs festival that was held at the Special Events Field in St. Augustine this past weekend was a huge success, especially for all of the people of The Arc of the St. Johns. Aside from displaying all the colors at our tent, enjoying the games and prizes that we had and that were at the event, and sharing The Arc’s story with lots and lots of new friends, The Arc of the St. Johns was really in rhythm. And we do mean Rhythm…
Ray Nutter is a member of the staff at The Arc of the St. Johns and coordinates a wonderful learning program using hand drums, shakers and tambourines to teach numbers, colors and sequence. Let’s not forget all the rhythm and fun he has doing this. Ray took his TRAP program to Rhythm & Ribs and The Arc tent this past weekend and with Ray’s talent you can imagine that our tent was a popular place to play! Ray gave free lessons to more than 150 kids over the weekend. Members of our In-Home Support staff and clients also turned out to meet and greet new friends and enjoy what must be another record-breaking festival for our Sunrise Rotary Club partners.
We want to say a very special thanks to everyone for dropping by. One of our new friends said, “You guys are everywhere, doing everything!” We look forward to another fun filled Rhythm and Ribs event next year. Check out some of the great photos taken during the event weekend and at our tent during the festival.
We also want to remind everyone about “The Putters” golf tournament. This is the 5th annual Championship for People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. This event is taking place at the World Golf Village on Saturday, April 20th. Please see the attached flyer and follow the link from our home page to register for the tournament or to be a tournament sponsor.
The men and women at The Arc of the St. Johns enjoyed a special treat from our wonderful friends at the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Department last week. Deputy Joey Romer brought along a great sense of humor and a bagful of magic and encouraged just about everyone in attendance to participate. There was so much enjoyment and lots of ooh’s and ah’s from everyone. We are very blessed to have everyone at the Sherriff’s Department on our team!
Members of the Oceanside Rotary Club made a fun and exciting visit to The Arc of the St. Johns Beaches Service Center in Jacksonville Beach, bringing along new caps for everyone. Blair Wygle is the current president of the Oceanside Rotary, and owner of Northpoint Promotions, who provided the caps for our guys. We are pretty sure they’ll wear them on all of their community field trips. The Oceanside Rotary Club has truly embraced our Beaches program, providing lead funding for our brand new van, a very special computer with touch screen and eye-control technology, and best of all, some wonderful new friends. We give many, many thanks to the Oceanside Rotary Club for all of their support. Please click on the thumbnail photo’s to see a larger image of the new caps.
Artists from The Arc of the St. Johns were hard at work this past Holiday Season creating paintings, holiday cards, and ornaments to sell. They decided as a club to use some of the proceeds from their sales to take a field trip to Jacksonville. While the Art Club was in Jacksonville, they visited the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) where they took a private tour and created their own artwork inspired by the various pieces they saw. Afterwards, they went to The Jacksonville Landing where they ate and talked about future projects for the club. Enjoy some pictures from the field trip!
The Arc of the St. Johns strongly supports The Arc of Florida’s initiative to “End the R-word in Florida”. Through State Senate Bill 142, also known as the Intellectual Disabilities Bill, we are encouraging the Florida Legislature and Governor to support a change in the State statutes that would remove the term “mental retardation” and replace it with “intellectual disabilities”. Once considered a valid medical term, the R-word has become a hurtful slang that promotes negative stereotypes of people with intellectual disabilities. It makes individuals with intellectual disabilities feel bullied. Key Messages for the Bill are:
Website for End the R-Word campaign sponsored by The Arc of Florida
Attention all miniature golf fans! The Arc of the St. Johns will be holding their 5th Annual Putters Championship miniature golf classic fundraiser for People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities on Saturday, April 20th beginning at 10:30 a.m. The match, featuring teams of 4, will take place at the Greens at the World Golf Hall of Fame located in beautiful St. Augustine, FL. All entrants receive refreshments, a goodie bag, bragging rights and a chance to win prizes, including the grand prize tickets to the 2013 The Players Championship at Sawgrass.
You can sign up as a single player or as your own foursome. The Arc of the St. Johns is also looking for tournament sponsorship opportunities and would like to thank LAN Associates, Inc. for their support of this tournament. Please visit The Putters tournament page on our website for more information and to download the registration and/or sponsorship form for the event.
Twenty members of the Adult Day Training staff suited up and boarded The Arc of the St. Johns branded vans in search of some pretty interesting treasures around the St. Augustine area for a team building exercise this month. There were a total of four teams, each with five people who were required to document each discovery they made during their excursions with a photograph. This made for a very lively “show and tell” lunch when the photos were displayed to help determine a winning team.
We want to thank our friends at The Columbia restaurant who helped with lunch; Board members Rob Matthews and Grant Misterley, who were kind enough to allow our teams to invade their day; the good sport and top-notch St. Augustine firemen at the King Street Fire Station; all the smiling faces at Publix; and all those unsuspecting new friends who allowed us to pump their gas, give us their autographs, and watched us jump around in public. What a wonderful Team Building event for some our very special direct care staff members. Click on the picture to enlarge and see description.
We are in immediate need of at least six wheelchairs at The Arc of the St. Johns are asking our special friends and the local community for some help and support. We are very thankful for all of our friends and supporters who have donated wheelchairs in the past, and now we need some replacements. Every one of them will be put into service immediately. We can arrange to pick them up, or they can be drop off at our main campus, which will give you an opportunity to take a brief tour of our facility.
We also invite you to visit our on-line WISHLIST where you can find items in need at The Arc that you can help with at: http://www.arcsj.org/givingtoArc.html#wish.
We are blessed with so many friends who help in so many ways in our mission to give life, purpose and dignity to men, women and children with IDD and special needs. Thank you very much for your help today, and always with your support of The Arc of the St. Johns.
To donate wheelchairs, please contact: Neal Benson at (904) 333-6338, or email: nbenson@arcsj.org.
