Creating opportunities for adults with disabilities since 1974 |
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A MESSAGE FROM OUR EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
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Greetings Friends of Vocational Visions!
These days, when I step out of the summer heat and into a store, I notice the decorations and merchandise are already changing to fall colors. Although the weather tells us it is the middle of summer, the signs of fall can be seen all around us. The kids are going back to school, colleges are beginning their fall semesters, and we are busy preparing for our gala event. Less than a month from now we will gather to celebrate An Enchanted Evening. This year’s theme is 'All We Need is Love'. This is so fitting, as our staff come to work every day because they love the work that they do, and they love the people they support. Your support for us helps make that work possible.
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This year’s event will be a great opportunity to gather together again - to see old friends, to celebrate everything we have been able to accomplish, and to plan for the future. It is hard to believe it has been three years since our last chance to come together to support the mission of Vocational Visions. This event is also a chance for us to express our appreciation for all of you, our friends and community partners. Whatever connected you with us, however you decided to make a commitment to strengthen the amazing work done by our staff to support people with disabilities, we want to honor your faith in us. We constantly strive to provide the best support services to help each individual in our programs to be successful, to be part of their community, and to thrive.
We hope to see you at the Enchanted Evening on September 17th, at the Hyatt Regency John Wayne Airport hotel. There will be fine food and wine, a live and silent auction, a raffle, and a rousing performance by some of our program participants that I cannot wait to see for the first time. And, most of all, there will be the love of our shared mission to help people in our programs build lives of independence, purpose, and value. Together, we can do it. All we need is love!
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PARTICIPANT SPOTLIGHT
DONNY RICHARDS
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We're very excited to be able to shine our participant spotlight on Donny Richards. Donny will celebrate three years in our HRS program in September. Donny's family decided that, the best way to get a good glimpse of who Donny is, would be to have family members write and share little observations about him. We hope you enjoy this neat introduction of Donny. |
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Donny’s Mom Kelli:
Donny is usually very quiet until you get to know him. He asks a lot of questions that he already knows the answer to, but he just enjoys having a conversation. He is very silly and loves to laugh, but he is ornery, too. He finds physical comedy hilarious. So, if you trip and fall, he will laugh so hard his face will turn red and he’ll get tears in his eyes. But if he trips, he might yell at the floor.
Donny helps at home by getting the mail out of the mailbox and pulling the trash cans to the street. He says that is his favorite job. He likes to look out our front window to watch over the neighborhood. He announces who is coming and going, because he recognizes every car and knows all of our neighbors. Donny can tell you the make of every car on the road. He loves Tesla. And Maserati. And all cars.
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Donny loves to watch YouTube videos on his iPad and his current favorites are car and RV shows, women’s college softball games, auto factory assembly videos and Joe Biden campaign speeches. Sometimes, he argues with Joe. |
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Donny loves our cats, Brandon and Benjamin, and every night he asks them to come into his room to say “Goodnight.” They are usually busy sleeping or looking out the window, but sometimes they saunter in to say “Goodnight.”
Here is a quick video of Donny entertaining Brandon the cat whose nickname is 'Sloth Bunny'.
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Donny’s Cousin Amy:
Donny is so dedicated to the things he loves and knows so much about them. I remember sitting with him when we were little, watching him point out different cars in magazines and telling him about them.
Donny’s Cousin Christopher:
I love playing ball with Donny because he’s so enthusiastic. He’ll play for what seems like hours sometimes! He’s a joker. He likes the mini poopers.
Editor's note: Donny and his grandpa have a longstanding joke that has spread to the rest of the family where they refer to the Mini Cooper cars as 'Mini Poopers'.
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Donny’s Grandpa:
Donny loves to swim in our pool. He will stay there for hours laughing and splashing and it’s a joy to watch him have all that fun. He laughs all the time. He’s a happy young man. We love him very much.
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Donny’s Aunt Martine:
One of my favorite things about Donny is the twinkle he gets in his eyes when he’s pulling a fast one on someone, followed by his whole-body enjoyment of their reaction when they realize he’s pulling their chain.
Editor's note: Rumor has it that Donny loves to pull a fast one on VV employee Ryan (pictured here with Donny at the Irvine Park Railroad).
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Donny’s Grandma:
I love it when Donny is happy to see me and gives me a big hug around the neck. Also, when he laughs at some silly thing someone says. He has a great memory and likes to talk about his trips camping at Newport Dunes and when Papa Scott took him to the car shows. He loves cars, balls, his bike, his sisters, Mom and Papa, and his adventures to the ferry at Balboa.
Donny’s Sister Kelsie:
Donny is the best butthead brother I could ever ask for. He’s got the best jokes and is always the life of the party.
Donny’s Sister Zoey:
Donny brings everyone around him joy and laughter and life would not be the same without him in our family. ❤️
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Donny’s Stepdad Papa Scott:
As an adult with special needs, Donny’s life is full of special challenges for himself and his team of caregivers, which includes all the incredible staff at Vocational Visions who have a hand in his care, development and recreation. His attitude in facing those challenges continuously amazes me. He has an ability to see the humor in situations that far surpasses any conclusions someone may come to in an assessment of his developmental abilities.
Donny always laughs when we completely misinterpret his garbled speech, which is good, because he is often very hard to understand. Sometimes, when his legs give out from underneath him as he is getting off the couch, he will purposely sprawl himself out in a ridiculous pose just to ham it up a little. He loves slapstick humor and giggles when people speak foreign languages (because they don’t make any sense, of course). One of our neighbors loves to sprinkle his storytelling with sound effects, which always gets a chuckle out of Donny, as well. He truly has a gift for witnessing the more comedic side of life, which I think is why he is undaunted by the day-to-day obstacles he faces on a regular basis. It will be fun to see what ridiculousness he will cook up tomorrow, but if you want a new best friend just say something silly to Donny, wink at him - and maybe burp afterward - and he will know you are one of his kind.
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It was certainly a treat to get to know more about Donny through the eyes of his family members. It is clear to us that Donny is the kind of family member and friend that everyone would be blessed to have in their circle. Don't you agree? We're sure happy he is a part of our VV circle. |
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This month, we are shining our spotlight on our Day Training Activity Center (DTAC) - Pala program overseen by Chelsae Mansfield. |
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DTAC Pala currently serves 85 participants. In addition to our onsite instruction, activities, and community outings, DTAC Pala supports a number of participants at work and volunteer sites. Check out some of our current work and volunteer sites below!
High Park Tap House
Here is Rene hard at work at Mission Viejo's High Park Tap House restaurant. Rene has worked there for about nine months and assists them with various tasks, including cleaning the patio / dining room and washing dishes. Rene is a very hard worker and receives great support from our VV job coaches, as well as the High Park Tap House staff.
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Professional Results, Inc.
Tim and Michael have worked as “Tooth Slooth” packagers for Professional Results, Inc. for about a year now. Their attention to detail and efficiency makes them awesome employees!
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Pretend City
Ashley, Travis, Iain, and Bel currently volunteer at Pretend City Children’s Museum weekly. They love the opportunity to give back to the community and interact with the kids that visit the museum. They assist with greeting the kids / families and passing out stickers, Pretend City bucks, and timecards.
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TerraNova Church
Ben, Chris, and Tim have been volunteering at TerraNova Church for almost a year. They help out with several tasks, including setting up / breaking down tables, cleaning / sanitizing toys, preparing guest name tags, stocking the coffee bar, and emptying trash cans.
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ENCHANTED EVENING 2022
ALL WE NEED IS LOVE
SEPTEMBER 17, 2022
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Can you believe it? We are less than one month away from our 2022 Enchanted Evening Gala. The hotel wants us to provide the final meal counts on September 9 so please make sure to register and select your meal choice before then.
As a reminder, the meal choices are:
- Port Braised Short Ribs
- Spinach and Goat Cheese Stuffed Chicken
- Vegetarian Lasagna
If you are unable to attend, you may still purchase opportunity (raffle) tickets for the Montage Laguna Beach Resort Getaway package. While the drawing will take place on event night, the winner doesn't need to be present to get the prize.
We are also in need of more volunteers for event night. If you would like to donate your time to volunteer (hours mostly needed between the timeframe of 3:30 pm and 9:30 pm), please let us know. You'll get the benefit of being at the event while helping to make sure it runs smoothly.
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There's still time for donations! Are you able to donate an auction item to our event to help us to raise money? Here are some 'out of the box' ideas to consider:
- Unused gift cards with their original balance to places you might not frequent (even one gift card makes a difference because we can package it with others)
- Unused credit card points
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If you have a property or timeshare that you would be willing to donate a stay to, the experience would make a fabulous auction item
To register for the event online, click on the link below. You will have the option to select pay by check (if you prefer to drop off or mail in a check for your tickets, sponsorship or donation). This will eliminate credit card processing fees. Just write 'EE Tickets' in the check memo and get it over to us by 9/8/22. You can also order and pay for your raffle tickets to be entered into the drawing for the Montage Laguna Beach Resort Getaway via check ($20 per individual raffle ticket or $10 per raffle ticket if you buy a pack of 10 tickets). Just write 'EE Raffle' in the check memo and get it over to us by 9/14/22.
Email Amy @ agill@vocationalvisions.org for raffle tickets, volunteering opportunities, confirming meal choices and any other questions about the event. Our next Enchanted Evening event won't be until 2024.
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Spinal Muscular Atrophy Month
VV Board of Directors Meeting
EE Committee Meeting
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Entire Month
August 24, 2022
August 10 & 24, 2022
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SHOP FOR SUMMER & EARN DONATIONS FOR VV
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Click on this link to smile.amazon.com to go right to the page to select Vocational Visions as your charity for Amazon purchases.
Amazon will donate 0.5% of the price of your eligible purchases to us as long as you shop at smile.amazon.com.
Click here for instructions to activate AmazonSmile on your Amazon mobile phone app.
We have 104 Amazon shoppers that have selected VV as their charity of choice for AmazonSmile purchases. That is 3 more shoppers than last month! In the month of July 2022, we had 180 qualifying purchases (down 11 from June 2022). Are you taking advantage of AmazonSmile? It is a wonderful and easy way to help others.
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BUY GROCERIES AT RALPHS
EARN DONATIONS FOR VV
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VV is delighted to report that we received a check for $54.36 from Ralphs as a donation resulting from 12 households who shopped at Ralphs from March 1 - May 31, 2022. Why did Ralphs reward us for those 12 household shoppers? Because those shoppers support what we do at VV so they linked their free Ralphs Grocery Store shopper's card to Vocational Visions as part of this program:
Then, they swiped their shopper's card (or entered their associated phone number) whenever they shopped at Ralphs and Ralphs made a quarterly donation to us on their behalf. It was that simple.
Can you imagine if 100 more grocery shoppers decided to take advantage of the Ralphs Community Contribution and chose us as their charity of choice? We could potentially raise over $400 per quarter. And all it would take from you is a couple of minutes to sign up and then grocery shopping at Ralphs using your rewards card like you probably already do. Click on the link above or the image below to sign up and make a difference in an unassuming but important way.
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