Celebrating National Developmental Disability Awareness Month through Recognizing “Everybody Can”

March is National Developmental Disability Awareness Month.  There is no time more fitting to celebrate all that local students have learned about developmental and other disabilities as a result of their participation in the “Everybody Can” contest hosted by The Arc of Delaware County  and Delta Kappa Gamma.

 “The goal of this contest is to raise awareness and understanding of intellectual and developmental disabilities and to instill acceptance of differences at a young age, very similar to the goals of National Developmental Disability Awareness Month but on a smaller scale”, “states Catherine Tweedie, Director of Community Relations at The Arc of Delaware County, “From the entries submitted, it was apparent that students had fun while learning about people and how they didn’t let disabilities stand in the way of their accomplishments!”

This year’s contest had a bit of twist, challenging students to research famous people who had disabilities and, through their project,  demonstrate their knowledge of the disability and the accomplishments of the famous person(s) they selected.  A variety of very creative submissions were received from Delaware County students in grades K-8 in the categories of art, media, and literature.

The Arc of Delaware County and Delta Kappa Gamma enjoyed reviewing all the entries, are pleased to announce the following winners of the 4th annual “Everybody Can” contest.

Countywide winners:

Art: Alexis Redden, Michaela Valkavich, 7th Graders from Andes Central School for their mobile that portrayed famous people who had a variety of disabilities including Down’s syndrome, being blind, deaf, or loss of the use of their limbs.  The artistic elements of the project included photos and short biographies which were incorporated into a mobile with an overall film/movie star motif.
Media: Haley Kosier, 5th Grader from South Kortright Central School for her PowerPoint, “Never Say Never” which highlighted the accomplishments of former president Franklin D. Roosevelt, Stevie Wonder, and Helen Keller.
Literature: Nancy Gavett’s 5th grade class from Townsend Elementary School in Walton compiled a book with photos and stories, which was illustrated with pictures of their artistic character interpretations portraying 21 famous people who through their researched, they learned each had some type of disability, including Einstein, David Beckham, Tom Cruise, Whoopi Goldberg and many others.

Honorable Mention:

Art: Joanna Grommeek, Jordan Finch, and Morgan Hungerford, from South Kortright Central School created a life-size poster about Bella Thorne and dyslexia.

Media: George Haynes and Gavyn Bryant from  South Kortright Central School created a PowerPoint entitled “Never Give Up”.

A  Teachers Choice Award selected for a uniquely creative book about baseball player James Anthony Abbott; this project was designed and produced by Joey Shafer, Joe Ploutz, Aydyn Tweedie from South Kortright Central School.

Participating schools are to be commended for their support of this contest and in creating “Ambassadors of Change” – students who appreciate the abilities of all people and embrace the belief that when given the opportunity, everybody can!

To view the winning entries, visit www.delarc.org and click on the news story, “Everybody Can- Goes Famous”.