In This Issue:

  • Annual Holiday Open House Recap
  • The Arc in Motion: Best of 2022
  • White Elephant Thrifted Gift Exchange
  • DRMAC Travel Training Workshop
  • Sensory Friendly Films
  • The Arc - JCCGC will be Closed for the Holidays

Holiday Open House Recap

It's been another excellent and busy month at The Arc-JCCGC. Among the highlights so far was our annual Holiday Open House. Nearly 150 people attended the holiday festivities on December 12 at our office in Lakewood.
 
Guests enjoyed delicious catering from Biscuits & Berries, sampled the hot chocolate bar, created holiday greeting cards, took selfies with Santa Claus, made ornaments to decorate our office gratitude tree, and most importantly - connected with new acquaintances, and reunited with old friends and our staff.
 
Thank you to all who joined us for this fun event. As the saying goes: A picture is worth a thousand words, so click here to check out our open house photos!

 
The Arc in Motion: Best of 2022

Our team thought it would be fun to wrap up 2022 by resharing some favorite articles from the past year. Here are links to editions of The Arc in Motion featuring selected stories:


  • Developmental Disability Awareness Month Interview with Comedian Josh Blue: click here


  • Molly Kirkham: Self-Advocate. Leader. Activist. Poet. feature: click here.

Our goal for The Arc in Motion is to help support and empower our community by presenting information to ensure the people we serve are well-informed about issues that directly affect their lives. 

White Elephant
Thrifted Gift Exchange

Fun. Laughter. Holiday Cheer. A White Elephant Gift Exchange.

Often, the most vivid holiday memories involve experiences rather than gifts.

White elephant gift exchanges offer the potential for people to gain fun memories and score some interesting and useful swag. Just in case you've never heard of this tradition, a white elephant gift exchange is a classic holiday party game where gifts are exchanged either at the office or at gatherings with friends and family. A gift price is set for the game and each participant supplies one wrapped gift.

Our staff’s recent white elephant gift exchange featured thrifted gifts costing less than ten dollars purchased at arc Thrift Stores. Coincidentally, many of us at The Arc-JCCGC love thrifting and it was very easy to find excellent items at great prices at arc Thrift Stores.

The arc Thrift stores provide mission-critical funding to chapters of The Arc in Colorado's front range communities – including The Arc-JCCGC - allowing us to provide advocacy to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities in the counties we serve.

Celebrating the holidays with a white elephant thrifted gift exchange may be the ideal party activity:

  • Shopping at arc Thrift Stores helps support our community. The arc Thrift Stores employ thousands of people from all areas of Colorado, including those with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
  • If you would like to help support arc Thrift Stores but have no time for in-store shopping, gift cards are available online. To purchase the arc Thrift Stores gift cards, click here.
  • Helping give useful items another life was among the reasons why our white elephant thrifted gift exchange was so rewarding. Did you know that nearly 100 million pounds of goods are diverted from Colorado landfills every year because of arc Thrift Stores?
  • Usually thrift shopping is budget friendly. This may encourage participation in a thrifted gift exchange.

As our gift exchange ended, there was an abundance of perfect gifts which included: kitchenware, a backgammon/domino travel game, a paint by numbers set, a fondue pot, USB holiday lights, hats, scarves, vases, a lovely set of cat plates, and baking pans. For easy rules to do a white elephant exchange, click here. Exchanging thrifted gifts may add to the fun.

Information about arc Thrift Stores, including questions about donations of household items, is available by clicking here.

Efforts from everyone to find perfect presents were appreciated by all who participated in our white elephant thrifted gift exchange. All our arc Thrift Store finds were like new. An inspirational part of the process was the creativity involved in choosing lovely and thoughtful presents.

What could be better than a party game that is good for the environment, budget friendly, and supports our community?

An added bonus of our white elephant thrifted gift exchange was the fun and laughter - which is priceless and will not be forgotten!
DRMAC Travel Training Workshop

Denver Regional Mobility & Access Council is launching its newly redesigned travel training program. Learn more about it at their upcoming Travel Training Workshop:

January 10, 2023
1:30 - 3:00 p.m. via Zoom
To register for the workshop, click here

DRMAC’s mission is to ensure people with mobility challenges have access to the community by increasing, enhancing, sharing and coordinating regional transportation services and resources. DRMAC is a project of the Colorado Nonprofit Development Center. DRMAC serves the following Colorado counties: Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Broomfield, Clear Creek, Denver, Douglas, Gilpin and Jefferson. For more information about DRMAC, click here.
Sensory Friendly Films

The week of Christmas is among the busiest times of the year at movie theaters. With time off from work and school, more people head to cinemas to catch the latest blockbusters and holiday releases.

Several theaters in the area offer sensory friendly movie screenings. Attendees experience unique movie showings where the theater lights are on, and the sound is at a lower level than usual. Movie goers can get up, dance, walk, shout or sing, according to both AMC and Regal movie theaters, which are among the movie theaters that show sensory friendly film presentations.

AMC’s Sensory Friendly Film program is available on the second and fourth Saturday (family-friendly) and Wednesday evenings (mature audiences) of every month. Check your local theatre listings for specific showtimes. Find more information about sensory friendly film screenings at AMC Theaters, by clicking here.

Regal’s My Way Matinee sensory friendly showings are scheduled as the first show of the day on select Saturdays and Tuesdays of each month. Make sure to check your local theatre listings for specific movies and showtimes at Regal Theaters by clicking here
The Dancing Banana
The Arc - JCCGC will be Closed
for the Holidays

The Arc - JCCGC will be closed Friday, 12/23 through Monday, 1/2.
 
We look forward to returning to work on Tuesday, January 3, refreshed and ready to reconnect with you.
 
The next issue of The Arc in Motion will be emailed to you on January 11. 
 
Happy Holidays and Happy New Year from everyone at The Arc - JCCGC!