A Month of Fun at DDP

As Autism Awareness Month comes to a close, we want to highlight the wonderful events our Developmental Disabilities Program has hosted recently for the individuals we work with. DDP staff organized three great opportunities for everyone to relax, meet new people and have some fun!

Bowling at Lucky Strike

In March and April, our Adult Social Group and School-Age Group got to enjoy an afternoon of bowling, socializing with friends and good food at Lucky Strike in Somerville. The Adult Social Group has participated in bowling at other venues in the past, but this is the first year we have offered bowling to our School-Age Group over April Vacation Week. It was a rousing success! Many parents in the School-Age Group expressed how much fun their child was having and how great it was for them to have an activity offered to them in the community during Vacation Week.

“Steppin’ Into Spring” Dance

Our annual “Steppin’ Into Spring” Dance was held on Saturday, April 6th at Hibernian Hall in Watertown. The spring dance is one of our most anticipated events of the year. This year, we were happy to have 120 guests attend! Everyone had an enjoyable afternoon of dancing and reconnecting with friends they hadn’t seen in a while.

The dance was particularly fun this year thanks to some special touches members of the CFCS community brought to the event. Our Executive Administrator Jean Clements did a great job as DJ Jean, providing music for the event. Plus, we had a face painting station set up by one of the individuals DDP works with, who is an experienced face painter. Many of the guests really enjoyed getting their faces painted for the day! And finally, DDP staff had help from Beckey Fischer and Catie Thapa of the CFCS Administrative Team to make sure the dance was a success. They were a huge help and DDP was so grateful they could join!

Group Painting

In mid-April, we were very excited to host an afternoon of painting at our office for our School-Age Group and Adult Social Group. Masterpiece Art Bar provided the supplies and walked our clients through the painting process. Both groups painted pictures of a palm tree at sunset. It was so much fun to watch this…

…become this!

And some members of the group even did their own thing:

During the School-Age Group’s session, parents and guardians were able to visit with each other while their children painted and enjoyed their lunch. Members of the Adult Social Group each worked on their own painting, but also enjoyed each other’s company during the event.

We’d like to say a special thanks to the local businesses who gave their time, space and energy to making sure everyone had a great time this month! We all made memories we will treasure for a long time.