Monthly Matters

April, 2026

GET INVOLVED

WAYS TO GIVE

IN THE HOUSE

🐰 Easter at The Center 🐰

On Sunday, April 5, we celebrated the Easter holiday with Residents and their loved ones. Thank you to our dedicated dining staff for your consistent efforts in making all MCC holiday gatherings a success! The food was wonderful as was the company. Thank you to all who joined us. We look forward to seeing you again at our next holiday function, the annual MCC Memorial Day luncheon on Monday, May 25.

We'd also like to extend our sincerest thanks to The MCC M.O.M.S. group for their gracious Easter gift. We truly appreciate the time and thought that you put in to writing a note of thanks to each MCC employee. You rock!

MCC Celebrates National Occupational Therapy Month

Every April the nation recognizes and celebrates the work of Occupational Therapists. Throughout the month of Apil, MCC's Occupational Therapy team invited all of us at The Center to join in on the celebration. Therapists, Sandy, Jen, and Emily crafted educational trivia questions related to the field and welcomed all employees to participate and win prizes!

At MCC, our Occupational Therapy, Speech Therapy, and Education teams work together to ensure Residents have a full understanding of the adaptive equipment available to them. The teams also work in tandem to educate the next generation. The Mary Campbell Center has a relationship with Delaware Tech's Occupational Therapy Assistant Program and takes on two OTA interns a year. OT, Speech, and Education demonstrate a variety of adapted equipment from low tech to high tech for the students, including adapted paintbrushes, items used for cooking, switch adapted tools, games and toys, the use of the iPad and apps used for specific programs here at The Center. The pictures you see here are from a visitation hosted by OT, Speech, and Education. The teams showcased adaptive equipment and provided insights on interning with MCC.

Happy Occupational Therapy month to our awesome OT team! Thank you for all you do to support Residents.

A Passion for Pizza

It is our pleasure to introduce MCC’s very own pizza pros, The Dough Bros!

This group of friendly dough slingers consists of five Residents who love a pie crafted with only the finest ingredients and enjoy the comradery that comes along with the sharing of dough among friends. Residents, Billy, Michael, Jared, Seth, and Dan meet in the kitchen once a month to concoct their monthly special; April's feature was a decadent stuffed crust coated in a garlic butter glaze.

This interactive cooking group not only holds space for quality time with peers, but it also incorporates cognitive and cooking-related goals tied to each Resident’s Individual Program Plan.

Behind the club's members are the occupational therapists, educators, and dining staff who make the monthly meet up such an enjoyable experience for the MCC Resident pizza pals.

Inclusion Matters

Many MCC Residents have dietary restrictions they must adhere to for their health and safety. You might be wondering if these Residents are able participate in cooking activities. The answer is yes! Thanks to our dedicated Occupational Therapists, The Center has now added a new cooking activity specifically for Residents with modified diets and/or difficulty swallowing. The program has been aptly named The IDDSI Cafe. The OT-run Cafe hosted their first activity in March of 2026 and assisted Residents in the making of a fluffy and delicious peanut butter mousse.

What is IDDSI?

IDDSI.org explains, The International Dysphagia Diet Standardisation Initiative (IDDSI) is a not-for-profit Standards Organisation that has developed a standard that can be used to describe the characteristics of foods and drinks - from the point of view of a person with swallowing difficulties.

CheerABILITIES - A New Way to Celebrate Abilities

MCC has a new cheer squad whose goal aligns directly with our mission statement!

Lead Activities Specialist, Hilary Stiebel along with help from her daughter, Sylvia, organized the new club and had this to say,

"My daughter Sylvia was inspired to create a CheerABILITIES team for her mitzvah project because of her profound passion for cheerleading and her desire to share that joy with others who might not otherwise have the opportunity. For her, cheer has been a source of friendship, discipline, and self-expression, and she wanted to build a space where everyone could feel that same sense of belonging and accomplishment."

Per Cheer Up's website, “CheerABILITIES is a division within All Star Cheer that was created to give athletes with disabilities the chance to participate in competitive cheerleading. It allows individuals of all abilities to be part of a cheer team, perform routines, and experience the fun and excitement of cheerleading. CheerABILITIES focuses on inclusion, teamwork, and showing that everyone can shine on the performance mat."

MCC's CheerABILITIES team performed together for the first time at Springer Middle School's Nationals send-off on Saturday, April 18.

According to Stiebel, "This was just the beginning." The team plans to host regular practices throughout the 2026-2027 season where they'll work on crafting a new routine and plan a performance schedule.

MCC Celebrates National Volunteer Month

Occupational Therapy shares the month of April with another fine group of individuals we call volunteers!

The volunteers of the world make an invaluable difference in countless communities and organizations across the globe. Their contributions carry significant weight especially in the not-for-profit sector. We may be bias, but we think we've got the best volunteers right here at The Mary Campbell Center. On April 22, we welcomed our steadfast volunteers for an evening of thanks. Residents, Brian and Kate, both spoke at the occasion expressing their gratitude as well as our Board Chair, Justin Dunn.

"We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give." - Winston Churchill

ON THE ROAD IN PICTURES

Residents were busy in the month of April, both in and out of the house!

The adventures embarked on included, a Wawa grand opening, the Universal Theme Park exhibit at Philly's Franklin Institute, catching up with friends at The LARC School, and visiting farm animals at Timblin Farms.

WELCOME KORNER

🎉Congratulations to the Following Employees🎉

Upcoming Events

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