February 2024 Newsletter

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us .” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Editorial 

Dear Friends,

Since the beginning of the year, we have already launched two additional services to serve our participants and their families. On January 13th, we launched our Saturday Respite program. The program runs from 9am to 3pm every Saturday and requires dropoff and pickup. The general structure of the program includes leisure activities, exercise, community outing, recreation and skills building. We have also launched our Group Prevocational Training service wherein some of our participants participate in activities leading to gaining non-job specific skills, communication skills, attending to task skills and problem solving skills at two possible sites:

1. Franklin Food Bank - Bagging of canned goods, stuffing envelopes, writing addresses on the envelope, putting stamp and address label on the envelope and other non-job specific tasks.

2. Burlington Coat Factory - Arranging clothes on the rack (overhangs and underhangs) by size and type, organizing racks, bringing clothes back to the racks from the changing rooms and other non-job specific tasks.

Over the course of 2024, we expect to expand the opportunities and add additional organizations who are willing and able to work with us. We also hope that some of the participants may get employed by these organizations, and while they can still continue attending our Day Habilitation program, we can provide them Support Employment for a few hours every week at these job sites. If you are interested in learning more about any of these services, please do not hesitate to reach out to me at sesh@dawntoduskwellbeing.com.

Starting February, we are also introducing a new email address, CARE@dawntoduskwellbeing.com. Please use this email address if you have any questions, concerns, suggestions or feedback with regards to participant care, support needs, lost/missing items, etc. The inbox will be monitored daily and we will respond as soon as possible. However, please do give us up to 24 hours (excluding weekends) for responses.

During the December holidays through early January, I took a vacation to India with one of our daughters. Such a trip would have been unimaginable for me last year. Indeed, this has only been possible thanks to our wonderful team at Dawn to Dusk. Although I had left fully expecting to be checking in frequently or being called into meetings, there was seldom a need for this.  It is extremely reassuring and gratifying to see that our participants are in the good hands of a competent team that will serve them well at all times. Thank you D2D team!!!

~Sesh Subramanian

Life Skills and Growing Independence

In January we received many donations toward our Clothing Drive to benefit the Vietnam Veterans of America organization, for which we thank the generosity of our community members and families!!  With all these clothing donations, the participants were tasked to sort each item by season; Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter. To start, we chose the two opposite seasons: Summer and Winter. Using a memory game followed by a sorting task, the groups launched into discussion about the temperatures and general climate and weather of the two seasons and began to discuss the different materials and styles of clothing that one might wear during each. Using the sense of touch, the participants compared different clothing materials and engaged in discussion around which materials and styles will help keep us warm when it is cold outside, and which materials will help us to keep cool when the weather is hot. 

Our What’s Cooking session focused on using the senses of sight and touch to compare the texture of four different types of flour for our recipe. The participants examined white, wheat, almond, and coconut flour during this session, before identifying the almond flour as the correct flour type called for in our recipe. Using the almond flour, the participants worked together to make a batch of gluten-free almond flour shortbread cookies. In keeping with the utilization of the senses, the participants also explored smoothie making, comparing the textures of the various fruits that we might want to use in a smoothie. In our cooking sessions the participants continue to work on identifying the different kitchen tools and utensils needed for the recipes, and it was this past month that we noticed a general increase in independence and a lack of reliance of staff prompting for the individuals to identify dry-ingredient measuring cups, wet-ingredient measuring cups, measuring spoons, whisks, and more! We look forward to continuing to foster the participants’ independence in the kitchen by building upon this knowledge in the future.

Self Expression Through Creativity

In our Creative Writing activity session, we took a moment to reflect on the fundamentals of writing. This provided an opportunity for each person to focus on where each of us started in our writing journey, and to celebrate how far we've come as writers and purveyors of language and communication. The session participants discussed how deceptively simple writing can seem, especially when we look back at our earliest attempts at conveying a message through words. However, we also recognized that those early struggles were an essential part of each of our growth both as people and as writers. Some of the participants were initially skeptical of completing letter tracing exercises, but by the end of the session, they had come to appreciate how important this foundation was for developing their writer's hand. We will continue to revisit foundational skills again and again throughout the year, as these seemingly simple skills can always be strengthened before we take another step to build upon them in our writing projects.

Other Activities:

• Get Creative:  The participants explored different textures and materials in January to create beautiful, one-of-a-kind snowflakes, working with choices in color, design, texture, and patterns for their project. Using washi tape, fancy paper, colored tissue paper, glue, dot markers, and glitter, the snowflakes reflected the unique point of view and preferences of each participant in the session. 

• Music Enrichment: This month, our Music Enrichment activity sessions focused on building on the repeating patterns from the December sessions. In January, the participants continued to play repeating patterns but also began learning how to read repeating patterns by dividing a song into different sections of patterns that repeat, recognizing the different patterns, and transitioning together from one pattern to the next. Working with the pop song Shout by the Isley Brothers, the participants strengthened their pattern recognition skills and practiced musical transitions together as a group. We look forward to continuing to build upon these skills and making more music together in these small group music sessions.

• Artist Study: In January, the Artist Study sessions focused on pointillism, which is a painting technique in which small, distinct dots of color are applied in patterns to form an image. For the pointillism study, the participants referenced Georges Seurat’s famous work; Sunday in the Park. For the project, the participants utilized their fine motor skills to manipulate the simple Q-tip, using one single acrylic paint color to create a floral design of their choosing. They then used their chosen color’s complementary color (red: green; blue: orange; yellow: purple) to add detail and definition to their design. This effect of this technique leads the viewer to see only one color with different values for added detail from afar, despite the details and values being different colors completely when viewed up close. Working with fine motor skills, color theory and value, as well as different tools and manipulatives in this project has helped the participants to expand their understanding of what art is (sometimes, it’s just a bunch of tiny dots!) and how art can be accessible to everyone! 

Other Activities:

• Chair Exercise and Meditation with Keri which runs at the same time as Health Matters with Mike Smith, RN. This session focuses on breathing, stretching, and building the mind-body connection along with intentional movements and positive affirmations for the participants who engage with a gentle-movement approach to wellness.

• This month in Community Collaborative activity sessions the participants worked with natural materials to create bird feeders out of pinecones that we found in our surrounding environment. Rolling the pinecones in peanut butter was a fun and slightly sticky task which yielded many laughs. After the pinecones were covered in peanut butter, the participants covered the peanut butter with birdseed and tied a ribbon to the end for easy hanging outdoors. Some of the bird feeders were hung up in our garden and others were sent home with the participants. We hope that the birds are keeping warm and enjoying their special winter treat!

• In January we continued our volunteer work with the Franklin Food Bank by packing paper bags with non-perishable food items and canned goods, as well as adding decorative touches to the bags for the Valentine’s Day holiday coming up in February. We will be dropping the packed bags off at the Food Bank in February and we hope that our personal touches and decorations can help bring a smile to the faces of the Food Bank shoppers.

Leisure and Recreation

In January, Nature Club went on a virtual nature hike where they explored the sounds, sights, and different types of plants in a rainforest. The participants used their keen listening skills to identify the different sounds they heard from various animals and organisms in their natural habitat. After answering questions, the participants were invited to share their thoughts and engage in group discussion about whether they would like to spend time in that type of setting or would rather stay inside. While the majority of our group voted that they would prefer to stay home, we do have some adventurous friends who shared that they would be excited to travel to a foreign place and experience an environment so very different from the one we live in at home.

During the STEM session, the participants showcased their skills by classifying various shapes and identifying their presence in our daily lives. The class engaged in a shape-shifting scavenger hunt in our very own life skills program space. During this hunt, the participants were tasked to locate the geometrical shapes they had identified earlier in the lesson. They also identified real-life shapes, such as a circle representing a button or a rectangle resembling a shoe box. The session ended with a fun engineering activity where the participants combined different shapes to make creative objects, such as a house made by combining a square and a triangle or an ice cream cone created by joining a triangle and a circle. Geometry is all around us, and the shapes help to shape our daily lives. Recognizing the way that different shapes impact our daily lives and activities is such a fun way to bring the mathematics side of learning into the practical and concrete experience of our daily life at Dawn to Dusk and beyond!

In our Recreation Room, the participants have an opportunity to engage in some down-time activities and build upon their leisure skills and choice making in that they have a “free period” to self-direct what they would like to do. Many enjoy playing basketball on our indoor net, ping-pong and air-hockey with each other and even taking on our staff in these games. The participants have also been working with the staff to learn different card games and teach each other the rules. This month many participants enjoyed playing UNO together, as well as learning how to play Old Maid with our activity staff. Our community has found that these free periods in the Recreation Room yield ample opportunities for the utilization of communication, turn-taking, and cooperative play skills in a fun and relaxed setting where the participants are encouraged to choose their own leisure activities. 

Community Corner

As much as we love spending time at the center, we know how important it is to explore and connect with local businesses and organizations within our surrounding community, which is why we continue to create engaging and task-oriented activities during our community outings each week. In January, the Dawn to Dusk participants went to a local bowling alley at Knob Hill Country Lanes, enjoying the game and making memories with our friends. 

During our shopping outings to the local ShopRite, the participants completed a winter-food scavenger hunt, searching for items they had identified during the What’s Cooking sessions as seasonal foods that will give our bodies good energy during the winter months. This included searching for root vegetables such as ginger and turmeric, complex carbohydrates, bananas, citrus fruits (navel oranges anyone??), eggs, spices, iron-rich foods, dried fruits and nuts, and more! By learning about different seasonal food we can all be more mindful about where our energy comes from and how we can best nourish our bodies with local and in-season food options.

The participants also completed an activity at the local Quakerbridge Mall or Target that had a connection to our Life Skills activity session, designing their own weather-appropriate ensemble for winter. This task required the participants to shop as if they were getting dressed to go out to play in the snow and needed a warm outfit option for the day. The participants had a wonderful time choosing pants and shirts they liked based on their own personal fashion style, and then working together to identify what else was needed to keep warm on a snowy day from a warm hat, all the way down to socks and boots! The participants then returned all of their items to the racks that they had found them on, reinforcing the tasks involved not only in our activity, but also in being a cognizant shopper and helpful community member.

Our trips to the local libraries remain a consistent favorite for many of the participants, and we will continue with these outings this year. In January, the participants visited the Monroe Public Library for some leisure time spent reading, playing computer games, and flipping through the many many pages that the library has available to us as community members.

In January, we decided to mix things up with our lunch outings. We added some old favorites like Olive Garden, Buffalo Wild Wings, and Wendy’s back on the calendar. Pizza Hut was also brought into the mix as a new option that everyone seemed to enjoy because, allegedly, “no one out-pizzas the hut”. It was great to visit these local establishments and try new items on their familiar menus, as well as expand our menu and decision making skills at a newer restaurant. As we are preparing to focus on money management again in our life skills program come February, we are excited to have the opportunity to continue going out in the community with our participants. It's such a valuable experience for everyone involved, as we get to practice social interactions and financial exchanges in a real-world setting.

If you have any questions or suggestions about the Day Program, please contact Emily at: emily@dawntoduskwellbeing.com          

Photo Gallery

Enjoy some special moments and smiles in our photo gallery here.