Centerpoint Winter 2016 - Mary Cariola Childrens Center

Centerpoint
A Newsletter for Friends of Mary Cariola Children’s Center • Winter 2016
p Recreational
therapy space.
Assemblymember Harry Bronson announces a $500,000 gift to the
Agency. He was joined by Cariola families Michelle and Ella
Schilling, Dave Quist and Agency President Karen Zandi.
Bronson secures major gift;
Agency and families to benefit
S
tate assemblymember Harry Bronson (138th District)
has secured the largest single gift in the history of
Mary Cariola Children’s Center. The $500,000 in
funding will allow for enhancements at both campuses and
an expansion at our Bailey Road residence.
The funding will support several Agency initiatives. The
first project will increase space for physical, recreational,
occupational and speech therapy sessions at the school’s
campus at Elmwood and East Henrietta. The Bailey Road
project will add two bedrooms, a bathroom and recreational
space to our residential home in Henrietta. This expansion
allows Mary Cariola to provide respite service for families
and will implement a therapeutic model of intervention to
benefit the youth and their families.
“We are absolutely thrilled with Assemblymember
Bronson’s gift. His hard work and diligence will resolve a
need for additional space that is necessary to conduct
individual therapy sessions,” explained Agency President
Bailey Road expansion. u
Karen Zandi. “The addition to our Bailey Road residence
will allow us to offer an individualized respite program to
families.”
“Mary Cariola Children’s Center does amazing work for
children with developmental disabilities,” said Assemblymember Bronson. “The teachers, staff and administrators
are truly gifted and share in the success of our children
because they challenge them to reach their
full potential.” •
2015-2016
Board of Directors
OFFICERS:
Chairman: Mark Armbruster
Vice-Chair, Treasurer:
Pat Larrabee
Assistant Treasurer: Jason Hall
Secretary: John Barr
BOARD MEMBERS:
Mike Armbruster
Matt Bailey
Mary Bowe
James DeVoe
Richard Finley
Malinda Gaskamp
Michelle Halloran
Susan Hetherington
Barry Jencik
Will Mack
Frank Magnera
Jeffrey McCormack
Linda Miller
Marie O’Horo
Mary Overfield
Jo Ellen Pinkham
Renu Singh
Mike Stachura
Lynn Sullivan
Joseph Tobin
Rob Vigdor
Walking on Sunshine . . .
Agency’s largest fundraiser continues
to make strides
T
he sun was shining and the crowd was big—a perfect combination for
the Agency’s largest fundraiser, Walking on Sunshine 2015! Nearly 1,200
walkers, rollers, and volunteers joined us and raised $145,000 to support our children and young adults!
Walking on Sunshine continues to grow in popularity and community support.
With creative names like the Beach Therapists, Sean’s Strolling Soldiers and
Team Todd CAN/AM, our walk teams range from staff to students to families and
friends and include international flavor with our walkers from Canada!
A special thank you goes out to our sponsors, donors, volunteers and participants for making this event a huge success!
“We can all be proud of coming together to support our Agency,”
SEPT
said President Karen Zandi. “I am so impressed by the Mary Cariola
spirit and am so proud to be surrounded by such amazing people.
Thank you again for making this event such a great success!”
SUNDAY
Major news about Walking on Sunshine 2016 will be coming
soon. Save the Date for September 25, 2016! See you there! •
25
Centerpoint
Winter 2016
Editor: Joanne Fisher
Contributors and Photography:
Seth Berman, Amanda Eggleston,
Lauren Bevacqua, Mel Carpino,
Linda Henning, Fred Henry, Kathy Howe,
Inga Mucha, Jean Peyton,
Stacey Saracene and Emily Smith
Designer: Pinwheel Creative
Centerpoint is published four times
per year by the Agency Advancement
Department.
Many thanks to our major sponsors:
e Ames Amzalak
Memorial Trust
Annual Report 2015
Providing access
to their world
W
hen a student has a vision AND hearing impairment, a very detailed thought process goes
into the structure of his or her educational
plan. Imagine not being able to see or hear the staff member or clinician who may sit next to you or take you to a
therapy suite. At Mary Cariola, differentiating between
teachers and therapists and various classroom activities is
broken down into unique and tangible cues—touching a
watch, feeling a headband, or smelling a fragrance—lets a
student know who is there to teach, play or conduct a
therapy session. Thanks to a very dedicated Mary Cariola
staff, students with dual-sensory losses are in good hands.
Joan Smith has been a Teacher of the Visually Impaired
at Mary Cariola for 35 years. She is also a regional leader
for the NYS Deaf Blind Collaborative, a federally funded
project which provides technical assistance, program development and support to improve services for children
and youth (ages 0-21) who are deaf-blind. She said when
students have dual sensory loss the “true challenge is to
have them access their world.”
Educating these students is a unique challenge because
it impacts their ability to use learning materials and the
curriculum. Joan describes the complexity of the learning
process: “it’s not deaf plus blind, it’s deaf times blind.”
Students with dual sensory loss benefit from Mary
Cariola’s specialized equipment, technology, and everyday
adaptations to be successful. Our students have access to:
• Communication systems that use objects instead
of pictures
• Teaching strategies such as hand-under-hand prompting, tactile sign language and touch cues
• Children’s books
adapted with various
textures and braille
• A braille embosser that
prints braille and
creates tactile graphics
To help these and future students in this program meet
their full potential, Mary Cariola has a group of staff
members participating in intervener trainings through the
NYS Deaf Blind Collaborative. They are learning specialized
knowledge, skills, and teaching techniques unique to this
increasing population. These staffers will complement our existing staff of four full-time
Teachers of the Visually Impaired.
Students in Mary Cariola’s dual sensory loss
program have their own personalities, characteristics, and individual learning styles. But,
the goals for them are the same—increased
independence, access to communication, and
greater engagement with their world. •
Annual Report continues u
Annual Report 2015
By the Numbers
This annual report to the community covers Mary Cariola’s fiscal year
between July 1, 2014 - June 30, 2015. For a list of donations made during
this time, please visit www.marycariola.org.
United Way
0.5%
Funding Sources
Education:
$18,566,496
• NYS Dept. of Education
School Age
• County Reimbursement
Preschool
Community
Services
26.1%
Community
Services:
$7,174,015
• Office for People with
Developmental Disabilities
Medicaid Waiver Services,
Residential Programming,
Medicaid Service
Coordination
Contributions
& Investments
5.9%
Education
67.5%
Contributions &
Investments:
$1,611,235
United Way:
$146,705
__________________________
Total:
Rent
5.4%
$27,498,451
Program
Operations
11.1%
Non-Operating
Expenses
1.3%
Agency Expenses
Salaries:
Fringe Benefits:
$18,469,423
$4,207,257
Program Operations:
$3,071,060
Rent:
$1,484,106
Non-Operating Expenses:
$371,228
__________________________
Fringe Benefits
15.3%
Total:
$27,603,074
Salaries
66.9%
upational,
eech, Occ
s offered: Sp
m
a
r
g
o
r
P
Therapy
zelen, Vision
ehavior, Snoe
ic, B
Physical, Mus
, Nutrition,
chological
offered: Psy
s
e
ic
v
r
e
S
Technology
Consult
logy, Assistive
Neuro
Psychiatric,
al Work,
Soci
red: Nursing,
e
ff
o
s
e
ic
v
r
Se
Specialized Education, Telemedicine
ical
Adapted Phys
Number of Students: 430
Number of Staff: 610
Number of Classrooms: 60
Number of School Districts
represented: 46
Number of Counties served: 9
School Buildings:
Elmwood Campus
East Henrietta Campus
Transition Center
Residential Homes:
Bailey Road—W. Henrietta
Browncroft Road—Penfield
East River Road—W. Henrietta
English Road—Greece
Kreag Road—Fairport
Rush-Scottsville Road—Rush
Number of Therapy Programs
offered: 7
Number of Consult Services
offered: 5
Number of Specialized Services
offered: 4
2014-2015
Board of Directors
OFFICERS:
Chairman: James. E. Devoe
Vice-Chair: Mark Armbruster
Treasurer: Pat Larrabee
Secretary: John M. Barr
BOARD MEMBERS:
Mike Armbruster
Matt Bailey
Malinda Gaskamp
Jason Hall
Michelle L. Halloran
Susan Hetherington
Barry Jencik, CPA
William Mack
Frank Magnera
Jeffrey McCormack
Linda Miller
Marie O’Horo
Michael Osborn
Mary Overfield
Jo Ellen Pinkham
Lynn Sullivan
Joseph Tobin
Robert M. Vigdor
t Paul Coffman (l) of Ape and Canary Style
Apothecary and Bob Bartosiewicz (r) CEO of
CGI Communications enjoy a Mary Cariola
window display in downtown Rochester with
Agency President Karen Zandi. CGI donated
their building space while Paul donated the
design.
q It was a slam dunk of a day when the State
University of New York at Brockport Men’s
Basketball team held a skills clinic for our
East Henrietta students.
Cariola
Moments
t Mary Cariola Children’s Center hosted a
two-day seminar featuring Dr. John Carpente.
The seminar, “Individual Music Centered
Assessment Profile for Neurodevelopmental
Disorders,” attracted a global audience from
New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Illinois
and New Zealand.
q Senator Rich Funke toured recently to learn
more about our work and visit with students
and staff.
p
Employees from Oppenheimer Funds
contributed cartloads of gifts in support
of our Holiday Helpers project while
Sharon Smith (l) surprised Social Worker
Rosemary Sherman with a corporate
gift to the Agency.
Save the
Dates: 2016
24
MAY
30
TUESDAY
JULY
25
SATURDAY
SEPT
SUNDAY
Mary Cariola’s
er
67th Annual Dinn
t
Mary Cariola Nigh
at Frontier Field
ne
Walking on Sunshi
Fundraiser
Remembering
Friends
Ronnie was a sweet boy who touched
everyone’s heart. He
was a popular guy
around school. We
still smile thinking
about his love of
trees. He would marvel at the big trees as
we took him to the bus each day. We
will cherish all of the times we had
with him and will treasure how he
made every day a bright spot in our
classroom.
Jill and George Peyton were long
time supporters of
the Agency and members of the Cariola
Circle. They had a
great understanding
of our work and admiration for our
staff. They were especially interested
in the importance of our animal assisted therapy program. •
New curriculum
enhances learning
S
tudents at Mary Cariola are unique, especially in the multi-faceted ways
they learn. Traditional practices and curriculums don’t fit their educational needs. So how do you incorporate the uniqueness of our student
learners with a program that can be used Agency wide?
The answer? Combine two different curriculums!
The Agency tapped into the expertise of Dr. Jennie Schaff, Associate Professor at Nazareth College, to perform a needs assessment. Based on the information gathered, the Cariola staff has begun the process of merging two existing
curriculums: the Unique
Learning System and the
Complete Applied Behavior
Analysis (ABA) Curriculum by
Dr. Julie Knapp.
The Unique Learning System is a set of interactive
tools designed for students
with special needs to access
the general curriculum. The
Knapp Center team has developed their own curriculum
based on 40 years of experience in ABA, which involves a
series of techniques used for
increasing useful behaviors
and reducing those that may
cause harm or interfere with
learning.
Families may start to see
Teacher Laura Baliva and Marquise
students bringing home eduwork on a classroom exercise involving
cational content that may be
flash card recognition.
similar to their siblings who
attend other school districts as the curriculums align with the Common Core
State Standards.
“Our staff is very invested in the new curriculum. More than 50 staff members,
representing clinical and educational disciplines, have been involved in the research and implementation of the new curriculum,” said Erin DiCesare, Behavior
Therapy Manager. “The themes will
bring our school together and engage
staff to pull ideas from each other. We
have really come together as a school
and embraced this new curriculum.” •
Right: Dr. Julie Knapp conducts
a curriculum workshop for
Cariola staff.
Donors making a
difference
T
wo long-time Agency friends have recently
made generous gifts to the Agency. Heartfelt
thanks to Board Member Pat Larrabee who
donated $100,000 and to the Ames Amzalak Memorial
Trust for their donation of
$150,000.
These generous gifts
will help turn our needs
into assets and are earmarked for several projects including our Bailey
Road expansion and
respite program, renovations to our medical
suite, classrooms and
therapy spaces. •
Pat Larrabee
k
e Ames Amzala
Memorial Trust
Parent cited for
advocacy work
C
Cariola in focus:
Agency featured at
Golisano celebration
T
wo Cariola students and one resident, all of whom
display strength, determination and hope, were
selected to be photographed for a photo exhibit
that was featured during the Golisano Foundation’s 30th
Anniversary Celebration.
Each attended a private
photo session with Rick
Guidotti, an award-winning
fashion photographer and founder of Positive Exposure,
an arts education and advocacy organization. •
PHOTO COURTESY OF STARBRIDGE
ongratulations to Mary Cariola Parent Pat
Muir who received the Founders Award at
STARBRIDGE’s Celebration of Champions
dinner. STARBRIDGE, formerly known as The Advocacy Center and LDA Life and Learning Services, provides services and
advocacy for people with
disabilities and their circles of support. Mary Cariola nominated Pat for
her enthusiasm and diligence in advocating for
people with disabilities.
Pat founded Family Advocates United, a collaborative group to unite
family advocacy groups
throughout the Finger
Lakes and Western NY regions. She was recognized for improving the quality
of life for people with disabilities. •
PHOTOS COURTESY OF
RICK GUIDOTTI
Holly, Kennedy and Tyshawn share their excitement with Rick Guidotti during the premiere of the
Change How You See, See How You Change photo
exhibit at The George Eastman Museum.
Mary Cariola Children’s Center
1000 Elmwood Ave., Suite 100
Rochester, NY 14620-3093
(585) 271-0761
www.marycariola.org
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Please contact Emily Smith at
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Gifts that last a lifetime
(and then some)
W
e’d like to acknowledge the wonderful friends of Mary Cariola
Children’s Center who have indicated that they have or intend to
make a planned gift. For many, it is one of the easiest ways to
support the children and youth served by Mary Cariola. Planned gifts allow the
Agency to have resources that support today’s students and residents and will
allow us to plan for future needs. It truly is a gift that lasts a lifetime and
then some.
If Mary Cariola Children’s Center is already in your will, trust or other estate
planning—Thank You!
If you would like to discuss how you can include Mary Cariola in your estate
planning, please contact Mel Carpino, Director of Agency Advancement, at
[email protected] or 271-2897 ext.1633. •