The Cantalician Review
is the new e-newsletter of Cantalician Center for Learning, Inc. The quarterly e-newsletter aims to inform its supporters, community partners, and the individuals and families it serves about its services, events, and happenings at the 501(c)3 nonprofit organization.
|
|
"We're on top of the world!"
|
|
Welcome to Cantalician Center for Learning
|
Our Services:
School Age, Daycare, Preschool, Early Childhood Community Services, Habilitation Services, Employment and Contract Services through our division, Diversified Labor Solutions.
Our Mission:
"We promote independence and offer meaningful, integrated opportunities through individualized services guided by Christian values.”
|
|
|
|
Mark your calendar
Cantalician Annual Appeal 2018
Date: Ends on Monday, December 31, 2018
Time: Anytime
SABAH 2019 Celebration on Ice Show
Date: TBA
Location: KeyBank Center, 1 Seymour H Knox III Plaza, Buffalo, NY 14203
Time: TBA
SAVE THE DATE - The 2019 Cantalician Celebration!
Date: Thursday, May 23, 2019
Location: Ohio St, Buffalo, NY 14204
Time: 5:30 p.m.
Skyzone Sensory Sundays
Date: Sundays
Location: Skyzone, 425 Cayuga Road, Cheektowaga, NY 14225
**Special pricing available - Contact Skyzone for details**
Sensory Friendly Movie: Mary Poppins Returns
Date: Saturday, January 5, 2019
Location: Flix Stadium, 4901 Transit Road, Lancaster, NY 14086
Time: 10:00 a.m.
**Contact Flix Stadium for pricing information**
Sensory Night at WNED's KidFest
Date: Friday, February 8, 2019
Location: WNED/WBFO Studios, 140 Lower Terrace, Buffalo, NY 14202
Time: 6:00 p.m.
**Contact WNED/WBFO Studios for pricing information**
The following events are for staff, friends, and/or family members of Cantalician Center ONLY!
Cantalician Parents Group Meeting
Date:
Thursday,
January 3, 2019, Thursday, February 7, 2019, and Thursday, March 7, 2019
Location: Cantalician Center (Academic Campus - Room 14)
Time: 6:00 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.
|
|
Team Cantalician Highlights
|
|
Congratulations!
Cantalician Center would like to congratulate those who were recognized during our 2018 Employee Recognition & Holiday Event!
Distinguished Career Services Award Recipients:
Joe Grgas
Marie Sutton
Betti Young
Rookie of the Year Award Recipients:
Joseph Barreca
Dayna Caito
Brian Kindron
Emily Mahony
Emily Markham
Deziar Whitlock
Every year, Cantalician Center recognizes the skills and expertise of our "exceptional" staff at our Employee Recognition and Holiday Event. Each year, we celebrate positive practices, day-to-day performance, and input which merit special attention and recognition. Congratulations to everyone recognized at this year's event. Thank you for your dedication and service to Cantalician Center!
|
|
|
Achiever of the Year
Written by: Ashley Hirtzel,
Communications Coordinator
Cantalician Center would like to congratulate its own custodial team member Nick Notaro on being a recipient of Goodwill Industries' 2018 Achiever of the Year Award. Excellent job, Nick! This award is well deserved. We're so lucky to have you as part of our team.
We would also like to thank our entire custodial team for working hard day in and day out to make our Academic Campus shine. We appreciate all you do!
|
|
|
A big thank you to Morgan Stanley!
|
Written by: John Rodgers,
Opportunity Development Coordinator
Cantalician Center was recently awarded an Imagination Playground grant through a partnership with Morgan Stanley, KaBoom, and United Way of Buffalo and Erie County. We are very grateful to receive such a wonderful grant. We want to thank our new community partners and look forward to working with them in the future!
|
|
|
 |
Tis' the season for giving
Written by: Mark Blesy, Co-
Principal
Cantalician Center saw the return of its Annual “Giving Tree” this December. Each ornament on the tree represented a student who would receive a wrapped gift. Within one day, all of the ornaments had been spoken for by Cantalician Center staff. We also had several organizations donate gifts to our students. We would like to thank each and every one of our community partners for their generosity this holiday season. It truly meant a lot to our students.
A special thank you goes out to:
- The Cantalician Center staff members who contributed
- St. Joseph University Parish
- Cathy Bosch, Vice President, Wilmington Trust and her staff members
- Colleen Christman, K-2 Teacher, Cantalician Center and Lauren Smith
Due to everyone's amazing generosity, all 263 students will receive gifts this year.
A special “thank you” goes out to Judy Maciolek, Supervisor of Physical Therapy and Sue Ruska, Supervisor of Speech Therapy for organizing the distribution of all the gifts.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, everyone!
|
|
|
|
Art Club visits the Albright Knox
Written by: Elise Chambers,
Art Teacher
This past November, select students from the Art Club took a field trip to the Albright Knox Art Gallery as part of their “Creative Connections” program. They viewed the exhibit “We the People”, exploring 21
st
century art dealing with communities issues, technology and modern communication.
After touring the exhibit, students got to work creating their own masterpiece. Students drew and stenciled emoticons and emojis onto backgrounds modeled after “One Cat” by
Jacqueline Humphries,
a painting they saw on tour. Some of the students left their work to be displayed later in the spring.
Each student also got to make their own emoji button to take home. They were fascinated as our tour guide, Miss Karen Duvall showed them the button-making machine. As one student put it, “it’s like magic!” This was as she watched her drawing become a wearable piece of art.
|
|
|
|
The Therapy Corner: Departments collaborate on 'Pediatric Feeding'
|
Written by: Sue Ruska, Supervisor of Speech Therapy
The Therapy Departments have been very busy attending day-long conferences and workshops focusing on Pediatric Feeding. The departments have been working in collaboration on new methods, techniques, and tools have been implemented to support our students with a range of strategies and interventions. The Therapy staff has also been working with classroom staff to build healthy mealtime habits. Teams are focusing on our students Sensory, Oral–Motor, and Postural needs. We have set our goals to; increase variety in student diets, use utensils more effectively, increase strength and mobility while chewing and safely swallow a variety of foods and liquids.
|
|
|
Let it snow!
Written by: Colleen Strough, Daycare Director
Samantha H. in the Toddler Room is having so much fun with our snow-filled sensory activity. This December we decided to bring a little bit of snow indoors where students could stay nice and warm while building little snowmen and making snow balls. Everyone had a great time with the activity. It was not only fun, but it definitely stimulated their senses.
The Daycare Department would also like to welcome Olivia H. and Nora B. to our Infant Room as well as Theseus Barlow to the Preschool. Welcome! We are thrilled to have all of you starting with us.
We are also getting ready for Brennan P. and Hailey W. to move up from the Infant Room to the Toddler room. My how fast they grow. Happy Holidays, everyone. See you in the New Year!
|
|
Day Habilitation Services reflects on 2018
|
Written by: Allison Siwirski,
Community Integration Planner
This holiday season in Day Habilitation Services, we’re looking back on our year and reflecting on all that we’ve accomplished. One of our greatest triumphs is how much we’ve done to give back to the community. We put many hours toward volunteering at organizations including; Meals on Wheels of Western New York, the Western New York Food Pantry, the Salvation Army, Mats for a Mission, Friends of the Night, the Niagar Gospel Rescue Mission, St. Vincent de Paul, and Buffalo Restore. Throughout the year, we’ve put in over 1,000 hours of volunteer service, and we could not be more proud of ourselves for all of our hard work. We’re looking forward to the opportunities that lie ahead of us in 2019! Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year, everyone!
|
|
|
DLS celebrates the opening of T.E.C.H.
|
Written by: Melisa Granville,
Associate Director of Employment Services
This fall, Cantalician Center's Community Prevocational Services opened its new classroom called: T.E.C.H. (Technology, Education, and Career Hub). The classroom is housed inside Diversified Labor Solutions [DLS (Cantalician Center's divison of Employment Services and Contract Services)] inside Tri-Main Center and will host various types of meaningful activities that both emphasize interaction and social learning. It will also help provide feedback and assessment throughout the learning process. T.E.C.H would not have been possible without a generous donation made by Vera Jackson, the late mother of Joseph Rizzo who currently works at DLS and attends Cantalician Center's Day Habilitation Services.The activities done through the new T.E.C.H. are drawn directly from the OPWDD (Office for People With Developmental Disabilities) Work Readiness curriculum, and are delivered in manner that will get service recipients thinking about competitive work as a reality for them, as well as learning the skills that employers are looking for which will increase the potential for employability. We are beyond thrilled to open T.E.C.H. and now offer expanded services to our participants.
|
|
Cantalician original retires after 57 years
|
Written by: Ashley Hirtzel,
Communications Coordinator
Joe Grgas who has attended Cantalician Center since 1961 (4-years-old), retired from his job as a laborer with the organization’s division of Employment Services, Diversified Labor Solutions this past fall. Grgas is not only known for his excellent work ethic, being the boy whose face can been seen in historic agency photos, but the man known for his amazing skills regarding his knowledge of the calendar, both past and present. He has an uncanny memory for dates, especially people’s birthdays, and it still marvels many to this day. Grgas also received the Distinguished Career Service Award at Cantalician Center’s Employee Recognition & Holiday Event this December.
“Joe is so deserving of the Distinguished Career Service Award as he walks and talks the agency values every day. He truly demonstrates what it is to be exceptional, adaptable, respectful, a team player, to have integrity, and to have fun. We could not be more proud of you, Joe,” said Anne Spisiak, Executive Director.
Katie Riggs, Job Coach at Cantalician Center reflects on her many years working with Grgas. She said his sense of humor in the workplace will definitely be missed.
“Whenever I came into work as a good morning greeting Joe would ask me three questions; ‘What’s up?’, ‘What’s new?’, and ‘How do you feel?’ I thought it was nice that I would get that greeting. So, I decided that whenever I would see Joe, I would start to ask him those questions. Joe is so funny though, because when I would say, “What’s up?” He would respond with, ‘Anything that’s not nailed down,’ “How do you feel?” ‘I feel with all my fingers and the tip of my thumb.’ “What’s new?” ‘Anything that’s not old,’ said Katie Riggs, Job Coach.”
Grgas may have begun his retirement, but he is not completely done with Cantalician Center yet, he is now attending the organization’s Day Habilitation Services a few times a week. So, people will still get their chance to see his sharp memory in action. Cantalician Center would like to wish Joe Grgas a very happy retirement and congratulations on his much deserved Distinguished Career Service Award. Way to go, Joe!
|
|
|
How do I donate?
Cantalician Center is a 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization, making a tax deductible donation will allow you to contribute to these target areas of need:
- Support for the 85% of children and adults we serve living in poverty that are in need of items to attend a full day of programming such as clothing, food, personal care products and more.
- Extra outings and activities that allow the students and individuals to learn critical life skills outside of their program setting.
|
|
|
Support us through AmazonSmile!
Remember when you're purchasing items on Amazon to go through
www.AmazonSmile.com. The site is the same Amazon. It has the same products, same prices, and same service. When you go through AmazonSmile to do your shopping, Amazon will donate 0.5% of the price of your eligible purchases to Cantalician Center. Just choose the "Cantalician Foundation" before you shop and you'll be good to go. Thank you for your support in advance!
|
|
|
Support us through Embrace the Difference
Support Cantalician Center by purchasing some
Embrace The Difference®
Jewlery and Giftware. Embrace The Difference® is a simple, yet powerful reminder that we are all connected, no matter what differences we may have. The Embrace The Difference® symbol not only promotes acceptance, but raises funds for a variety of different organizations. Mention Cantalician Center when you are purchasing your Embrace The Difference® merchandise and a portion of the proceeds will go toward our organization.
|
|
|
Cantalician Center for Learning, Inc.
|
|
The Cantalician Review
is
produced by Ashley Hirtzel, Marketing Coordinator for Cantalician Center for Learning
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
