Tag: new york

Eight years ago, a nation watched as hundreds of New York’s bravest made the ultimate sacrifice to help those in need.

Since then, a group of students at one Villa Park middle school has helped raise money each year on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks for their local fire department, while at the same time learning about the men and women that would come to the rescue in the event of a fire.

Students in the blind and visually impaired program at Albright Middle School in Villa Park spent part of their time in summer school making everything and anything patriotic, including American flag pillows, patriotic bracelets, and red, white and blue fans to sell to students, faculty and staff during two lunch periods today.

The school is part of Salt Creek School District 48, where the visually impaired program consists of more than 50 students. About 15 of the students were in the summer school program, and almost all of them participated in helping make the crafts.

Cindy Rukavina, a teacher in the Albright program, said the students have been doing crafts each summer since 2002, and have made nearly 50 different crafts to sell this year. Rukavina said the crafts not only assist with developing skills, but also help the students learn about what happened on Sept. 11, 2001, as well as what firefighters do for the community.

“It’s our way to honor our local firemen who put their lives on the line every day,” Rukavina said. “They would give up their own life to help our own kids, especially the vision-impaired kids who need extra help. … We feel it’s our duty to do something nice for them.”

Later this month, Villa Park firefighters will come to Albright to pick up the money raised by the craft sale. Last year, the sale raised more than $180. Villa Park firefighter/paramedic Matt Sauter said the department uses the money to purchase hats, stickers, and other items to give to children during speeches about fire prevention.

“One of the best fire prevention techniques in the fire service is giving away handouts and educating kids and parents,” Sauter said. “Giving them the opportunity to know that someone will be there and to trust us if we yell to follow us in the event of a fire is important. … It’s good to reassure them we’re going to take care of them if we’re needed.”

Source for complete article: http://www.mysuburbanlife.com/villapark/news/x1170598697/Students-lend-firefighters-helping-hand

Join Guggenheim Museum educators Georgia Krantz, Guthrie Nutter, and Ellen Edelman for a tour, discussion, and private reception. Separate programs are presented through Verbal Imaging, touch, and American Sign Language (ASL).

Mon, Aug 3, 6–8 pm: Learning By Doing Discussion and Workshop

Free, space is limited, advance RSVP required
RSVP by Tue, July 28: 212 360 4355 or access@guggenheim.org

*Priority admission to ASL tours is provided to the deaf community. ASL students will be notified two days before the program if space is available.

Public programs are supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.

Source for complete article and more information: http://is.gd/1Je2g

Five-year-old Iliana is visually impaired, but when she has trouble, her preschool classmate Lulu is there to help.

“I like to come with Iliana because I want to help her,” Lulu said. “I hold her hand because sometimes, sometimes she needs help.”

Iliana and Lulu’s simple camaraderie, perhaps uncommon at most schools, is normal at the Lighthouse International preschool in New York City, where several blind students are taught alongside sighted students. The school is part of Lighthouse International’s nonprofit mission to prevent blindness and to provide services for those already living with visual impairment.

“The kids that are visually impaired, they’re getting a regular preschool experience just like every other child should get,” Lighthouse International School principal Gregory Santamoor told “Good Morning America.”  Santamoor said the preschool runs with a “little extra adaptation” for the students with visual impairment.  The paper the kids use is raised so the students can actually feel their work. Every book the school has in print, they also have in braille. Whatever the sighted students learn, the visually impaired students learn right along with them.

We have the letters of the week. So, as the children are learning their print letter of the week, the child who is blind is learning their braille letter of the week,” teacher Regina D’Ambrosio explained.  The school has six integrated classrooms with kids ages 3 to 5. All of them follow a standard preschool curriculum.

Some parents, like Lulu’s father Rocky Kenworthy, were hesitant about enrolling their child in a school that makes a point to teach all children as similarly as possible.  “In the beginning, I was thinking, ‘Is she not going to get the attention she might get at another school even if it were a little bigger classroom because of the special needs that these children might need,” Kenworthy said.

But with 12 kids and three teachers in each class, the kids do not want for attention and Kenworthy said the school also teaches an early lesson in compassion.  “They learn that it’s good to be kind,” D’Ambrosio said. “It’s good to help people and help your friends, and then they get exposed to that at a very young age… It’s a life lesson learned.”

The visually impaired also benefit from the joint education, according to a small study published in the Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness in 2002, which said it helps blind children be more social….

Source for complete article: http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Story?id=8043258&page=2