a monthly newsletter for families and friends of Easter Seals Wyoming April 2009

MISSION

TALES AND TIDBITS

Easter Seals Wyoming • 991 Joe Street • Sheridan, WY 82801 • (307) 672-2816 anitab@esgw.org • www.esgw-nrm.easterseals.com

At Easter Seals Wyoming we create solutions

that change lives forpeople with disabilities

and their families.

April’s Egg-cellent Adventure

(left to right) Alice, Marian and Jessica drum up the nerve to take their first ride down the hill. Allan and

Alice get ready to start downhill. Colleen (at left) dishes up hot chocolate off the tailgate of her truck as

people retreated from the snow to warm up.

Dashing Down a Slippery Slope

Community Access participants conducted their fourth annual Easter Egg Hunt for two local day care centers on Thursday, April 2. In the morning we took a van load of participants to Ranchester and provided tots at the Tongue River Children’s Center with plastic eggs, stuffed animals and candy. And we also sent a group in the afternoon to the Sheridan Learning Center in the Whitney Building for the first time. A group of 10-12 Easter Seals participants hid plastic eggs filled with candy over a pre-selected play area, and then assisted toddlers as they scampered around in search

of goodies. After the hunt, partici- pants handed out small stuffed animals to each child. The egg hunts took about 90 min- utes apeice and according to staff, it was hilarious to watch the different expressions and actions of everybody as they hid or found the eggs. It’s difficult to determine who loves the Egg Hunts more, Easter Seals partici-pants or the kids.

The laws of gravity were tempo-rarily suspended during a Saturday outing on the mountain for the Easter Seals Wyoming’s Leisure and Recreation Club. The group was chaperoned by Community Access room coordinators Colleen Suther-lin, Jamie Sum-mers and Robert Lynam as they spent a beautiful sunny winter day at the snow bowl above Sheridan in the Big Horn Mountains. Temperatures in the thirties and the sun shining brightly on the crusted snow surface made for per-fect sledding conditions. The trip down the sledding hill was often in-terrupted with dips, rolls and the occasional crash, but everyone took the bumps and spills in stride.

Sledders who were able to stay onboard, despite the mogul fields scattered across the run, enjoyed a swift ride, as the descent stretched for nearly 200 yards before leveling off into a huge meadow. Sledders reaching the bot-tom of the hill right-side up could easily be travelling 25-30 miles-an-hour. Participants not only rode the gigantic, gentle slope all day but also enjoyed hot chocolate, roasted marshmallows and hot dogs for

lunch and snacks be- tween runs. As the day wore on it became clear that the wipeouts were just as much

fun as the full rides. Colleen Sutherlin described the day best: “I don’t know which is brighter, the sun today or all those smiles!”

Stay Tuned for aSpring Surprise

It looks as though April show-ers will be bringing more than just flowers for Easter Seals Wyoming this May. We hate to spoil a good surprise so that’s all we’re going to say for now. Just keep watch-ing and listening over the next few weeks and we’ll be sure to let you in on all of the details.

“Tales and Tidbits” is published monthly by Easter Seals Wyoming for the friends and families of our participants. For questions or comments please contact Anita Badgett at 672-2816 or e-mail anitab@esgw.org

Participants and staff listen as Dorene Ludwig reads her poetry

Wyoming Institute of the Blind DonatesEducational Toys

The Wonder of Words

Through a generous donation from the Wyoming Institute of the Blind the Easter Seals Wyoming’s Community Access Center recei-ved over $1,700 worth of educa-tional toys. They are aimed at assist-ing the visually impaired to sharpen tactile and spatial recognition skills. The educational applications may be targeted for our visually im-paired participants, but the enjoy-ment the activities provide is shared by everyone. One of the most popular items is a large, table-sized United States puzzle map. Each State is color coded and its name labeled in Braille. Major rivers and capitals are illustrated on each state’s shape to clue participants as to where it belongs. Major valleys and

The ABI Center celebrated the fact that March was Disability Awareness Month and Brain Injury Awareness Month by inviting poet Dorene Ludwig to perform for the Easter Seals Players and staff.

Everyone gathered on March 26 at the CETL auditorium in Sheridan College for a presentation titled “Loveliness to Sell.” Ms. Ludwig does a one woman show where she reads 21 pieces of work by women authors from the revolution to modern day. Partici-pants were entertained with pieces titled “Cockroach” and “Welcome March.”

Participants struggled at times to understand the meaning, but they also laughed and then became teary from some of the emotional readings. We were all wowed when Mary raised her hand to comment on the topic of grief. We were

touched by the comment by Mar-ian Floate who wants to follow in her mother’s footsteps and learn to write poetry. After the readings, Ms. Ludwig answered questions, gave tips on creative writing and encouraged staff and participants to try writing for stress relief and life enhance-ment.

mountain ranges are also contoured acrossthe puzzle which helps place pieces. There is also a very large, wooden construc-tion set. The wooden lengths, 36 pieces in all, are each about 1”x1/2” and vary from about six to 30 inches long. The pieces are drilled at each end and in the centers so as to allow assemblage with plastic bolts and nuts. The only limit is one’s imagination as projects take shape.

There are several Velcro, designeasels that allow participants to re- construct geographic designs from a book of master de- signs using plastic, multi- colored lines, curves, corners and spheres or just play a jumbo game of Tic-Tac-Toe. Two tape players were donated so participants could listen to books on tape, as well as several tactile puzzles which require participants to separate items into categories like weight, size, shape and even sound.

Fairy Tale Cast Gives Magical Performance

The Easter Seals Players pre-sented their 8th annual production, “Fractured Fairy Tales” to a large and lively audience on the evening of Friday the 13th of March. Ear-lier in the day, they gave an out-standing matinee performance for students from the local elementary schools. This year’s play followed the an-tics of a diverse group of fairy tale, cartoon, tv and movie characters. As the play begins the characters find themselves stuck inside the same jumbled tale, when Friday the 13th turns fairy tale land upside down. While everyone did an amazing job, there were several characters who really had the audience roaring with laughter. The usually reserved Cindy Duncan, showed her playful side--and a real talent for comedy--as Raggedy Ann. She mercilessly taunted and teased Raggedy Andy (played by Allan Mayszak), tweak-ing his nose and sneaking up to boot him in the behind, as the two danced for the crowd. (continued on page 3)

(left) Jennifer and Marian working on the Map of the United Staes puzzle (below) Curt and Mike begin aconstruction project.

“Tales and Tidbits” is published monthly by Easter Seals Wyoming for the friends and families of our participants. For questions or comments please contact Anita Badgett at 672-2816 or e-mail anitab@esgw.org

Fractured Fairy Tales(continued) Sugar Makes the Medicine Go

Down”and Davy Crockett (John Bennet) who strummed the guitar and sang “King of the Wild Frontier.” Of course, an Easter Seals Play-ers performance wouldn’t be com-plete without a couple of dance numbers. This year a production line-up of princesses danced to “Someday My Prince Will Come.” In ad- dition, the play’s finale featured a stage filled with jitterbugging

couples, dancing to “I’m a Be- liever.” When the curtain came down on the final scene, Dorothy still hadn’t found Kansas, Little Red Riding Hood hadn’t made it to grandma’s house, the prin-cesses were still waiting for their prince and Buzz Light Year was still searching to infinity and beyond. Instead of finding their way back to their own fairytales, the char-acters found a new set of friends and decided to stay together and of course, live happily ever after!

(Above) The cast members line up for a final bow.

Rachel, who played Red Riding Hood, belted out one of the best“one liners” of the evening in her scene with Mary Poppins. After asking repeatedly for directions to grandma’s house and receiving the same nonsensical reply, a frustrated Red Riding Hood blurted, “Never mind, I’ll take my chances with the wolf.” The audience howled! No fairy talewould be complete without a fairy godmother. Shirley Mal- yurek, however, was not your typical fairy godmother. More like a “fairy godmother gone bad,”she com-plained colorfullyto everyone who’d listen that the wish granting businesswasn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Master spy James Bond 007 (Wesley Sikkenga) dressed in a black suit and dark sunglasses, stole the show a number of times and had the audience laughing nearly to the point of tears. His impromptu and somewhat provocative dance moves during the final musical number will long be remembered. Other highlights of the evening included musical performances by Mary Poppins (Emily Erickson) who sang “Just a Spoonful of

John Bennett as Davy Crockett

Curt Vinzant asBuzz Lightyear

(Above) Fairy Godmother and friends, (left) Emily Erickson as Mary Poppins, (right) Rebecca & Mary Chi-conski as Oompa Loompa

(left) Allan Mayszak and Cindy Duncan as Raggedy Ann and Andy (right) King Arthur’s troops)

Wesley Sikkengaas James Bond

Jennette Benavidezas the March Hare

“Tales and Tidbits” is published monthly by Easter Seals Wyoming for the friends and families of our participants. For questions or comments please contact Anita Badgett at 672-2816 or e-mail anitab@esgw.org

Easter Seals Wyoming991 Joe StreetSheridan, WY 82801

Inside this issue...

Highlights and photos from The Easter Seals Players’ production, “Fractured Fairy Tales”