Healthy Kids with Special Needs Fall Recap

Submitted by Active Members Lauren Leviner and Nan Krieg

The Healthy Kids with Special Needs Committee has been working hard to plan events for families here in the Midlands. This year, the committee expanded to partner with Family Connection, Winston’s Wish, SC Autism Society and the Arc of South Carolina. All four groups specialize in the support, education and care of families with children with various disabilities. Working under this new umbrella the Healthy Kids with Special Needs committee has fifteen events planned for the 2012-2013 calendar year.

   

Several of the events have already taken place, with great success and a wonderful time had by all!

The committee kicked off the year with Family Connection Princess Workshop in September. Girls from Family Connection were invited to come enjoy a day of fun and food and were treated like royalty. Games, hair and makeup and other fun took place, before each child was crowned a Princess! The Princess Workshop is organized by former Miss SC Crystal Garrett and her mother. 

Healthy Kids with Special Needs has also partnered with Winston’s Wish for a year-long Autism Ambassador program. Each JL Ambassador participated in Autism training and is now paired with a child from Winston’s Wish. They serve as pen pals and meet three times during the year for a fun outing. The committee held their first event in November at Tag It Art Studio, where the children painted a special gift to give to their parent for Christmas! During this time, the parents were invited to go next door to Happy Café and enjoy coffee and dessert! 

SC Autism Society and JLC also enjoyed a fun night in November. This event took place at the PLEX and the Healthy Kids with Special needs committee assisted SC Autism Society in their RESPIT event! Children were paired with volunteers from SC Autism Society and JL Members helped play games, serve food and provide a very fun family fun night for all!

The Junior League of Columbia’s Children with Special Needs Committee assisted in throwing Family Connection’s Holiday Social on Sunday, December 2, 2012. This fun family event was held in the Cardinal Newman High School gymnasium and included an array of crafts, games, music and Santa.

The approximately 300 participants arrived on Sunday to a decorated gymnasium filled with music, food and an assortment of activities. A local Girl Scouts troop was on hand to paint children’s faces and league members provided crafts, including coloring, decorating snowflakes, making reindeer antlers and food for Santa’s reindeer, decorating reusable shopping bags and creating handprint ornaments. There were games galore, such as ice fishing, hula hooping, tic tac toe, bean bag toss, a parachute and cake walk. There was even a photo booth with costume accessories and props for families to take home memories.

Entertainment and special guests of the day included Miss South Carolina 2007, Crystal Garrett, who performed a Christmas song, as well as one of her originals for the families. At 1:30 p.m., the DJ/Magician performed an exciting and interactive magic show for the children. And of course, a holiday party would not be complete without a visit from the big guy himself, Santa Claus.

To end the holiday social on a high note, children, parents and League members danced the afternoon away to songs like the Chicken Dance, Hokey Pokey, Gangnam Style, Cha Cha Slide, Cupid Shuffle and Wobble.

Healthy Kids with Special Needs has upcoming events planned with all four organizations over the next several months! Stay tuned for an update and see what else this year has in store!

Check out our awesome JLC members volunteering at the Family Connection Holiday Social: