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John's usual--
CLI wrapped up our cornhole tournament series this past Saturday with a reverse raffle. Thank you to all of you who sold so many tickets-- and to the many people who supported this fundraiser by purchasing tickets. I especially want to recognize the regular CLI crew that put in so much extra time & effort into making this summer series successful & fun. I'm very grateful to News2You who sent large groups of volunteers to help at all four events. Great people who jumped in and helped hugely. We sold all 298 tickets before Saturday without too much trouble and had to even turn down would be buyers at the end of the week. We raffled off ticket #001 and ticket #300 on Saturday's raffle. Ticket #001 went in the hopper with the last 99 tickets. Ticket #300 went in with the last 9-- and ultimately won the whole shebang. The winner donated the $1000 back to CLI with the understanding that they could remain anonymous-- and since we'll do anything for a buck... It was a great wrap-up to the cornhole series, which was won by a Lorain area team that also donated some of their winnings back to CLI all summer. I really like these cornhole tournaments because they are easy and they are such cool, fun integrated events that people just hang out, play games with friends & beverages, and the only ones special are the winners. All told, CLI netted a little more than $6,000 that we'll plow back into what we do-- and paid out more than $2000 in cornhole & raffle prizes (not counting the $1000+ donated back). We'll post the full 300 ticket drawing results on CLI's Facebook page.
This Friday, September 30th, CLI is hosting a high school mixer for young adults with DD still in high school and their parents. We'll have some volunteers to help the kids bowl while the adults meet. We figure that kids need the opportunity to just socialize after hours-- and we know from CLI's experience as an adult services agency that families are often not at all ready for the transition from Department of Education services to Department of DD services. The two worlds are very different from one another, especially for a student graduating who needs significant supports and/or isn't ready to work very many hours at a community job. We hope to have SSAs from both the Huron County Board of DD and the Erie County Board of DD on hand to help. Honestly, I have no idea what the turnout will be. We've shared the flyer with both County Boards of DD, which have in turned pushed them out to families. We've also shared the flyer with local high schools. However, we know how busy working parents are-- so we'll just have to see. Regardless of whether we get a good turnout for this particular event or not-- the adult DD system and the school-age systems need to figure out more effective ways to prepare kids and their families for a person-centered reality where supports are supposed to be customized to the present and future that each individual wants. As a parent, that's the reality that I would want for my child. I don't like how our system traditionally limits individual successes to set best-case pigeon holes. However, custom building unique ISP is a lot harder than figuring out whether there's an available slot at the sheltered workshop. It's especially hard when the parents don't understand the tools they have to build this new structure.
That's all I have for this week. Like you I'm sure, I'm struggling with the sudden flip from summer to fall last week. I do love this season best, but I am not ready for it yet this year! Have a great week.
John
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