We asked, you voted! Here’s the winning student drawing that will be featured on our next employee t-shirt! Thank you to everyone who voted.

Submitted by Trista Zimmerman, Leisure Education Teacher

Over the past few months, students have been able to place health at the forefront with our Healthy Habits program. Using our Tools for Schools grant, we’ve had the opportunity to explore different activities across campus and in the community. The grant has enabled us to:

• Purchase water bottles, as well as a new water fountain, which has increased hydration habits amongst staff and students.
• Go on outings – hiking, to the grocery store, to community gardens, and other health related activities.
• Have bikes repaired which the students have taken out into the community during their Physical Education time.
• Explore new fruits and veggies by visiting our local Co-op.
• Focus on overall wellbeing with a unit on happiness
• Participate in Health Jeopardy and win healthy prizes
• Complete a unit on sharing with accompanying fruit paintings.

The Healthy Habits programming has been a great way to teach lifelong wellness skills to our students, and will continue to be implemented once a month during the school year.

Parachute play provides endless fun!

Happy Birthday and Thank You to Scott Mell!  Scott raised over $2,000 for Chileda through his Facebook birthday fundraiser. We are celebrating this incredible donation and feeling very fortunate he chose Chileda as his birthday gift. Thank you to all the amazing people who donated to support our mission of “improving the quality of life for youth with cognitive challenges and extraordinary behavioral needs.”

Scott is also our very first fan to raise funds for us via Facebook. This is an exciting new venture for Chileda. Donating to our cause on Facebook is simple and convenient. Please help us spread the word and be sure to like us at www.facebook.com/chileda.

The weather was perfect yesterday for a fun evening of water play during our large group recreation time. Students ran through sprinklers, played in kiddie pools and enjoyed the much anticipated staff dunk. Students were given the opportunity to dump as much water as they wanted onto staff. As you can see from the photo, students loved every minute of this. So many smiles, so much laughter. We know how to have fun!

Did you see us on the news?!
Fox News 25-48 stopped by Chileda in June and interviewed Karrie Zielke, Director of Compliance, about the Emergency Communication Boards (ECB) Chileda designed to assist emergency responders when they interact with adults and children who are nonverbal or have communication challenges.

Check out the link to view the exciting coverage.
http://www.weau.com/content/news/Emergency-communication-boards-aim-to-help-during-times-of-crisis-486986421.html

Do you have any connections to fire and police stations throughout the United States (or another business that might find the boards beneficial)?
Chileda has the boards available for sale. Here’s a link to the order form with more details.
http://chileda.org/emergency-communication-boards/

Thank you for helping us spread the word!

Submitted by Toby Wendtland, Scheduler and Recruiter

This summer, Chileda sponsored two inaugural softball teams, a co-ed team and a men’s team. These teams are comprised of 1st and 2nd shift staff, Direct Support Professionals, Leads, Case Mangers, Rec Staff and more. It has been an amazing opportunity for the team members to get to know each other better and to role model for the community some of the values that Chileda expounds: teamwork, fair play and respect. Each team has improved throughout the season with victories coming more frequently every week. While each team’s aim is to make a deep playoff run, the goal has always been to participate in the longest Chileda team builder in recent memory. And while none of the players will get “credit hours” for the training, the experiences and memories we all have are the best reward. Look for signups next Spring if you want to be a part of this wonderful experience.

Think of Chileda the next time you shop on Amazon!
The key is to go to smile.amazon.com or bookmark this link – https://smile.amazon.com/ch/39-1244797.

You shop. Amazon gives.
Amazon donates 0.5% of the price of your eligible AmazonSmile purchases to Chileda.

What is AmazonSmile?
AmazonSmile is a simple and automatic way for you to support Chileda every time you shop, at no cost to you. When you shop at smile.amazon.com, you’ll find the exact same low prices, vast selection and convenient shopping experience as Amazon.com, with the added bonus that Amazon will donate a portion of the purchase price to Chileda.

How do I shop at AmazonSmile?
To shop at AmazonSmile simply go to smile.amazon.com from the web browser on your computer or mobile device. You may also want to add a bookmark to smile.amazon.com to make it even easier to return and start your shopping at AmazonSmile.

Which products on AmazonSmile are eligible for charitable donations?
Tens of millions of products on AmazonSmile are eligible for donations. You will see eligible products marked “Eligible for AmazonSmile donation” on their product detail pages. Recurring Subscribe-and-Save purchases and subscription renewals are not currently eligible.

Congratulations, Mallory, on your acceptance to the Master’s program for Special Education and Applied Behavioral Analysis at Vanderbilt University. We are proud of everything you have done for us! Here’s what Mallory has to say about how Chileda influenced her career choice.

“Chileda has definitely left a lasting impact on me and has also strongly influenced the next steps in my career…The program I am pursuing will help me further research and investigate the function behind challenging behaviors as well as various interventions to help children regulate their behaviors.”

Students are out and about in the community and on the Chileda campus learning about healthy habits. Outings to places such as the People’s Food Co-op and the Kane Street Community Garden are made possible by the “Tools for Schools” grant we recently received. Thank you to WXOW, Brenengen Auto Group, Dependable Solutions and S.S.E. Music, Inc.. #HealthyHabits