HCA brings art to life for DD Awareness Month

Art and music have a special way of making connections in nearly everyone’s lives, and recently, Holmes Center for the Arts and the Holmes County Board of Developmental Disabilities presented a special day at HCA that allowed individuals with special needs to embrace the arts.

HCA presented its annual Holmes County Board of Developmental Disabilities Awareness Day, where music, art and movement were at the heart of the celebration.

Music and art benefit individuals with disabilities by providing creative outlets that enhance communication, build confidence, reduce stress, and promote emotional expression and social connection — just like in everyone else’s lives.

Crystal Payne, Holmes County BDD principal, said this is a special day that is exciting and educational for everyone involved.

“We’re thrilled to have developed such a neat working partnership with the Holmes Center for the Arts,” Payne said. “We enjoy it all year through their music and art programs, and this is a great day of celebration honoring that relationship and celebrating all of the ability levels in our community and coming together to share our uniqueness everyone brings to the table.”

Payne said the HCBDD has been bringing students to the HCA once a month all year, and HCA board member and former art teacher Cathie Lynch brings a traveling cart to the HCBDD regularly to provide students there with a chance to develop their artistic skills.

She said it is heartwarming to see the entire community get behind this effort and show its support.

Lynch has been instrumental in creating the celebratory occasion and said the HCA was created and developed just for experiences like this one.

“We’re so grateful to make these connections throughout the community and especially with the Board of DD,” Lynch said. “We’ve got some great teachers who are so gifted working with the students, and it is a day we all look forward to because it means so much to a lot of people.”

The event came about through funding from Community Grant Ohio, which provides microgrants to celebrate DD Awareness Month.

Lynch said they applied for the grant, and in explaining everything they wanted to do during the day and the positive impact it was going to have on the attending individuals, they made it clear education, fun and growing relationships were going to collide in a good way.

That brought them a $500 grant to purchase supplies and get the ball rolling. It also allowed them to purchase pizza for everyone for lunch, and like last year, German Village donated ice cream for dessert.

This year they invited students from HCBDD, Sacred Ground, GentleBrook and the Hiland High School BDD students.

In the theater volunteer Marty Lavigne joined David Miller to provide a musical presentation. Miller has been playing keyboard since he was 3 years old, and his talents served as inspiration to all.

He was able to share his story and his faith as part of the journey.

In the art room, artist Frieda Graber and volunteers worked with students on painting ornaments and doing other art projects.

In working with the students on movement and dance, Ella Sommers of Sacred Ground led a class focusing on bringing joy to movement in the dance room.

“We appreciate the collaboration with each one of these groups,” Lynch said. “We want this place to be something the entire community can use and enjoy.”

Graber said working with individuals with special needs is always fun, and seeing them enjoying art is rewarding. She said they were doing both paint and marker work.

“It makes me smile seeing their joy,” Graber said.

Grant Fox, primary educator at HCBDD, said this event is one that is cherished and anticipated by the students there.

“Everyone is eager to come out here to the HCA for this because it brings great joy,” Fox said. “The music and movement are really beneficial for all our individuals and students as we continue to build this relationship with HCA.”

He said these activities are beneficial in stimulating each individual and inspiring them to greater heights.

“We want all of our individuals to exceed as far as we can push them, and this day goes a long way in encouraging them to be creative,” Fox said.