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NEWS YOU CAN LOOK FORWARD TO
... and that's a FACT!
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While we are still disappointed the Party Under the Stars this year had to be postponed, we are excited to announce you can already get your tickets to celebrate with us on Saturday, May 21, 2022! The party will start at 4 PM and we are excited to announce the party is moving to a new, bigger venue at the YMCA at JT's Camp Grom!
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Our Cook's Night Off Raffle is LIVE! |
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FACT is so excited to bring back our popular Cook's Night Off Raffle from last year! Purchase your raffle ticket now for a chance to win $1,000 worth of gift cards to our areas best restaurants! Raffle tickets are $50 each and you can buy as many as you want! Tickets available until the lucky winner is drawn at 1 PM on Saturday, October 30th!
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Halloween Family Fun Day -
Volunteers Needed!
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What: Trunk or Treat Halloween Family Fun Day
When: October 30th, 3:30 to 6:00 PM
Where: Heritage United Methodist Church, 815 Baker Rd, Virginia Beach, VA 23462
Cost: FREE!
Interested in being a Trunk Decorator? Sign up to be one of our awesome trunk decorators, only 10 spots left! Candy will be provided, we just encourage you to come early and decorate your trunk with something fun for Halloween and pass out candy to our families and participants! Click here to reserve your spot!
If you are interested in donating candy for the event, please give us a call at 757-422-2040 or email us to set up a time to drop it off at our offices at 815 Baker Rd, Virginia Beach, VA 23462 (we are usually here M-F from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM). Parents can also drop off candy at any of our programs between now and October 30th.
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Donors and Grantors - PEATC
(Parent Educational Advocacy Training Center)
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We at FACT are so grateful to Parent Educational Advocacy Training Center (PEATC) for their generous donation of $5,000 to help support our year-round programs! Over the last couple years, FACT has continued to expand its year-round programming and is currently offering more leisure and sports programs after-school and on the weekends than ever before! It is thanks to the incredible generosity of organizations like PEATC that we have been able to serve more local kids and young adults with autism.
As a provider of services for students with disabilities in Virginia, PEATC knows how important extracurricular social and recreational opportunities are for students with disabilities and their families and we are so grateful for their support! Be sure to check them out as PEATC provides tools and information to empower Virginia students with disabilities (from birth to age 26) and their families!
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Upcoming Fundraisers for FACT |
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Our friends at the Cape Henry Rotary Foundation are bringing back their always popular Oyster Crush event this Sunday, October 10th from 1-6 PM at Ballyhoos Restaurant (2865 Lynnhaven Dr., Suite D3, Virginia Beach, VA 23451). Come enjoy food, beer, music, and more and help support FACT and a number of other awesome local charities!
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Movers & Shakers - Frederick Dixon |
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Frederick Dixon is the Executive Director and co-founder of Shark City Drum and Dance Corp., a local nonprofit whose mission is to provide students an opportunity to flourish as artists and create meaningful connections with our community. Frederick and his team of professionals empower and mentor students by instilling a sense of pride, responsibility, confidence, persona, higher level thinking, and lifelong learning.
FACT and Shark City recently connected through the Hampton Roads Community Foundation. For years, FACT has wanted to put together an autism drumline but lacked the necessary materials or instructors. Frederick and Shark City were a perfect fit and together we started our first drumming program this fall! Frederick and Orlando (another Shark City co-founder) bring great enthusiasm and passion to teaching our kids and young adults with autism all about playing the drums while having fun at the same time. Check out the above video for a brief look into all the fun our individuals with autism are having at Frederick's drumming sessions!
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Gotta Love this Kid - Kendall MacAllister |
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Kendall MacAllister is FACT's resident daredevil! Last month Social Club (our group of young adults with autism who do monthly excursions in the community) took to the trees at The Adventure Park at the Virginia Aquarium. While many of his peers and the FACT staff completed various ropes courses, Kendall decided to test his metal and take on the Double Black Diamond course. Kendall went toe-to-toe with the hardest ropes course in the whole park and came out on top! After his exhausting feat of strength and willpower, Kendall could be heard telling FACT staff Mr. Jessie that he needed to be carried home. Nevertheless, Kendall made it out to FACT's bowling program the following day and got to brag to all of his friends about how he finished the dreaded Double Black Diamond.
Kendall has been coming to FACT for 18 years and has grown tremendously over that time. Kendall's mom described his time with FACT as a blessing as it helped him develop his social skills and provided him with exposure to other people as otherwise he would just sit in his room. Now Kendall can drive himself and is about to celebrate two years at his job at the Oceana Commissary. We are so proud of the man Kendall has grown up to become and that he is still willing to push his limits and try new adventures with FACT!
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Upcoming Programs and Events |
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October's Social Programs, Drumming Round 2, and Volleyball are LIVE!
In addition to our Halloween Family Fun Day (more details above), FACT is so excited for a full slate of social programs this month, the return of Open Sports Clinic, registration opening for Winter Volleyball, and the start of Session 2 of our popular drumming program with Shark City Drum Corp. Check out all our programs at Active Registration! Call us at 757-422-2040 or email us at [email protected] if you are interested in more details on our programs.
Leisure Programs:
Drumming - Join FACT and Shark City Drum Corp for Session 2 of our drumming class! GonnawannaDRUMagin' is an 8-week creative drumming program with Frederick and Orlando, certified drumming instructors and teaching artists. Each session will explore the different techniques needed to play a drum: rhythm, holding of the drum sticks, different beat counts, and playing a drumming piece. Tuesday, Oct. 26th to Nov. 30th, six weeks at Friends School field/gym from 6:00-7:30 PM. Dress Rehearsals: Tuesday, Dec. 7th & 14th at Friends School field/gym from 6:00-7:30 PM. Shark City Showcase: Saturday, Dec. 18th at the KROC Center Hampton Roads, 1401 Ballentine Blvd. starting at 5:00 PM (doors open at 4:00 PM).
Lawn Games - Families are invited to pack a picnic dinner and join FACT for a night of learning/playing different lawn games. Each week, skills and strategies will be taught for a different lawn game: bocce, lawn darts, croquet, bucket ball, etc. This event is structured to be a community event where a chaperone, caretaker, family member(s), and/or entire families are encouraged to stay and learn the new skill with their participant in hopes to transfer the skill to larger community events/gatherings. Minimal staff will be provided for supervision as we are in hopes to create a family based community for our population. Families can sign up for whatever weeks work for them and we still have three sessions left on Thursday, Oct. 14th, 21st, and 28th, at Friends School field/gym from 6:00-7:30 PM.
Sports Programs:
Volleyball - Saturday, Nov. 6th to Dec. 11th (there will not be practice on Nov. 27th), five weeks at Friends School gym. Sessions offered from 9:15-10:30 AM (ages 6-14) and 10:45 AM-12:00 PM (ages 15-40).
Open Sports Clinic - Come drop off your child or young adult with autism for three hours of fun and exercise with friends while you enjoy a date night or just some relaxation time. Saturday, Oct. 23rd, at Friends School field/gym from 6:00-9:00 PM.
Social Programs September 2021:
Out & About - On Saturday, Oct. 16th from 10:00 AM to 1:15 PM, Out & About will be going to FallFest at Our Sensory Farm in Chesapeake. Each participant will need to bring a picnic style lunch and can participate in costume wearing, animal playing, nature trail exploring, sensory jar creating, and participating in goulish games. Each participant will be able to keep their sensory jars and eat their picnic lunch while at the farm! We will be meeting for the event at Heritage United Methodist Church (815 Baker Rd, Virginia Beach, VA 23462) at 10:00 AM.
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APEX Sensory Friendly Hour |
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Autism Research Opportunities |
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The University of Notre Dame Center for Children and Families is offering a virtual program through their center that may be of interest to you and your family. The program is called Supporting Parent-Adolescent Relationships and Communication (SPARC, for short).
The following is a message from one of the individuals running the program:
"We know that parents and typically developing siblings of kids with disabilities face additional stress and conflict, but there are very few research-based programs to support them. With that in mind, the SPARC program was developed to help parents and typically developing siblings improve communication and increase conflict resolution, which can reduce stress and strengthen relationships in the whole family.
We are looking for families who have at least one child with an intellectual or developmental disability (IDD) of any age and one child without a disability who is between the ages of 10 and 18. Families participate by answering survey questions online, doing activities as a family via video conferencing with our team, and receive research-based information to review on their own. Plus, families can earn up to $370 over the course of a year for being involved."
If you are interested in participating, click here.
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The Cleveland Clinic is still enrolling for their clinical trial to provide support for families of children with autism spectrum disorder and sleep disturbances. The treatment is delivered remotely via telehealth system, so families may live anywhere in the United States.
They are recruiting young children (ages 2 up to 7 years) with autism spectrum disorder and sleep disturbances. Participants are randomized either to 5 sessions targeted parent training program for sleep problems or 5 sessions parent education program where they will be provided knowledge relevant to parenting a child with autism. A previously NIH funded study demonstrated the parent training program was superior in improving sleep and bedtime problems. This study is testing whether this holds when delivered via telehealth. All families will be compensated for their time and participation. The possible benefits of participation in this study are the improvement of the child’s sleep and bedtime behaviors.
If you are interested in participating please contact [email protected], call 216-448-6392. or click here.
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