Landis visits adaptive movement center

While announcing a dedicated adaptive movement center will open in early September, organizers showed the facility to State Sen. Al Landis.

The current site of the Lacey Performing Arts Center at 117 S. Broadway in New Philadelphia will become a dedicated adaptive movement center. The dance studio will move to 116 First Drive SW in New Philadelphia. The tentative date for the move is Sept. 5.

“We’ve got about 8,000 square feet of dance studios and gymnastics rooms that are going to be opened,” owner Lacey Herbert-Stephen said.

The South Broadway facility will be refurbished into the adaptive movement center.

“Once we’re done with our last week of summer camps, then it’s a big change. We have to get all the equipment put together and set up. This whole place will look completely different,” Herbert-Stephen said.

The dance studio has been holding sensory and movement classes for special needs students weekly prior to this change and has had success.

“That’s been a way of getting them in here and getting used to us and what the facility is going to be while we were raising the funds to get the facility open and running. We raised enough to get us open. We didn’t raise all we wanted, but we got close enough, and now it’s happening,” Herbert-Stephen said.

The activities have helped students with special needs in a variety of ways.

“They’re not as nervous. They walk in, and you’ll see they’re smiling,” Herbert-Stephen said. “A lot of the students like scheduled things. They like to know what they’re doing that day and what they’re wearing for that event. A couple of our students lay out their dance clothes the night before. They wear the same Lacey PAC attire every time they come to the sensory movement class because they know that is my dance outfit. They have to have their same shoes.

“It’s really cute because when they walk in, you can see they’re prepared and ready for it. They like learning new stuff. But they also like the main routine to be the same. We also find a lot of them are becoming friends.”

Herbert-Stephen said the parents of the students are becoming friends too.

“They’re not just sitting here anymore. They’re actually going over to our local restaurants. And they’re eating together, grabbing a drink together. They’re socializing about what their loved one has done and what they need support with, and so you see these parents start becoming reliable to each other and having people that understand what they go through on a daily basis. So not just the kids are changing, but we’re seeing friendships being made by the parents as well,” Herbert-Stephen said.

Herbert-Stephen hopes the adaptive movement center will fill the gap for children and adults and allow them to find friends and others they can rely on. She has a special needs child herself.

“Now I have a huge group of parents I can reach out to at any given time and rely on and lean on, and they get it more than my family and more than my close friends do because they live it every day with me,” Herbert-Stephen said.

The center will be open on Tuesday and Thursday each week from 2:30-5:45 p.m. for age 3-12 and then from 6-9 p.m. for those 13 and up, including adults.

Families can call 330-340-5917 or email laceypac@yahoo.com for more information. The center also will use volunteers to help with activities and make sure students are safe.

“Also, we’re reaching out to local businesses and hoping they’ll jump on board even more with us to help provide money for the facility to continue to run the way we want it to run — safe and fun. We also have some businesses that are reaching out to us to help give money just for tuition, for children that need help with getting the money to be able to attend here,” Herbert-Stephen said.

The adaptive movement center has already partnered with Simpson’s Salute to provide jobs for special needs students to detail a number of Simpson Salute vehicles once every two weeks.

“Our students are really excited about it. They’ll get paid hourly, and then they can use their hourly money towards their tuition at the adaptive movement center, or they can keep it and use it towards other things that they are going to do,” Herbert-Stephen said.

She feels having a job will give students a sense of purpose.

“The Lacey PAC Adaptive Movement Center is for any child or adult with special needs of any kind. We have tons of equipment for them and lots of specialized therapists and specialists here that will be guiding them and doing a lot of fun and interactive things with them,” Herbert-Stephen said.

Landis was impressed with their efforts.

“This room is full of enthusiasm and love, and you can feel it the moment that you walk in. The enthusiasm that Lacey brings in understanding the need here in Tuscarawas County and beyond, of the services needed, is eye opening,” Landis said. “I really liked the idea of dance. I think dance is a way to bring barriers down. It’s joyous, and it makes you feel like part of a group. I think it’s going to be very beneficial for all involved, and it’s going to be a very big asset for our community.”