Good knights

The Knights of Columbus Council 12700 from Our Lady of Mt. Virgin Church in Middlesex has been a long-time supporter of Matheny.

During the holiday season, one of the Council’s members, Kevin Mazza, left, visited Matheny to present Steve Proctor, president, with a check for $1,537.

Josh Handler, an adult who lives in one of Matheny’s community residences, was recognized at Arthur & Friends’ recent Christmas party when he was presented with the organization’s Indomitable Spirit award. “He was selected by his peers,” says Wendie Blanchard, program director, “because he has the most ‘can do’ attitude we’ve ever seen. There is nothing he won’t try.”

Arthur & Friends, a program of the Northwest New Jersey Community Action Partnership (NORWESCAP), provides meaningful community employment and training opportunities for individuals with disabilities and disadvantages so they may live, work and fully participate in their communities. Through its Greenhouse Project, individuals with disabilities learn agri-business skills such as growing and selling organic produce to local wholesale, retail and online customers.

Above, from left, Frelinghuysen community resident assistant Sharon Thompson; Josh; and  Josh’s close friend, Estelle Campbell of Newton, NJ.

Members of the Matheny Choir received three standing ovations when they performed at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark as part of the Holiday Express Christmas Spectacular benefit concert. Singing “Last Christmas” and “Little Drummer Boy,” the Choir members then joined in with the Holiday Express singers for a rousing version of “Lean on Me.”

Holiday Express is a Monmouth County-based volunteer band whose mission is to deliver music, food, gifts, financial support and friendship to those in need during the holiday season. The band visited Matheny on December 11 and invited the Choir members to join them at NJPAC on December 21. The Choir is part of Matheny’s music therapy program. Its members perform throughout the year at a variety of venues, including the Peapack-Gladstone tree lighting ceremony.

Above: Matheny adult patient Taty Manousakis sings along with Holiday Express’ Byron Smith and music therapist Alissa West.

Below: Matheny student Yasin Reddick and music therapist Megan Chappius, left, harmonize with Holiday Express singer Mary D’Arcy. D’Arcy played Christine in the Broadway production of Phantom of the Opera.

Matheny teacher Karen Deland, seen here with 16-year-old student Daniel Gaudreau, has been chosen as one of WDHA-FM and WMTR-AM’s Teachers Who Rock Class of 2012. She is one of 24 outstanding teachers who will be recognized by the Greater Media radio stations, located in Cedar Knolls, NJ.

The awards are presented because the stations feel excellent teachers are not receiving adequate recognition for their important contribution to society. Deland and the other teachers will receive their award at a special banquet on March 13 at Ravello Elegant Weddings & Banquets in East Hanover, NJ.

Deland, a resident of Berkeley Heights, first taught at the Matheny School in Peapack in 1979. She left in 1980 to accept a teaching position in the Franklin Township Public School District in Quakertown, NJ. After earning a law degree and raising a family, she returned to Matheny in 2009 and, in 2010, was named Matheny’s Educator of the Year.

In her classes, Deland uses a Smart Board, which helps some of her students with poor vision follow along, “because it’s so large and bright, and you can change the background and meet their needs. Without the technology,” she says, “we would be doing textbook learning, which isn’t really appropriate for our population.”

After spending time as a teacher in both public and private schools and practicing law, Deland came back to Matheny because she missed the “special students.” Today’s Matheny students are much more medically complex than the students she taught 30 years ago, but the keys to success, she says, are flexibility and patience. “You just have to roll with it,” she says. “You may be working on phonetics today, but were working on compound words the day before, and one of the students will blurt out, ‘bedroom.’ Wow! She remembered it.”

Of course, not all education takes place in the classroom. “If we cannot provide our population with the ability to be out in public, we have a done a disservice to them,” she says. Her class recently played miniature golf at Hyatt Hills, a handicapped-accessible course in Clark. “I can put a student on a bus and take her to Shop Rite or take her to a golf course. I can’t think of any day that goes by that somebody doesn’t warm my heart.”

A group of employees from the Hartford Insurance Company, located in Florham Park, NJ, recently spent an afternoon crafting holiday decorations with adult patients at Matheny. One of the patients, Kevin White, received a big assist while decorating the tree from Hartford employee Amanda Rafferty.

Joining Matheny student Daeon Troutman are, from left: Stacey Sturrock, Young Moon, Cheryl Marraffino, Santa, Lisa Dattolo, Kelly Figeroa, Monica Griffith, Cynthia Eng and Lisa Alongi.

For the second consecutive year, employees from Skanska USA brought an early Christmas to Matheny, dropping off boxes of toys for the students and patients. This year, though, they were accompanied by Santa Claus, aka David Formichella, technical administrator in the New York City office.

Students from two classrooms gathered in the children’s dining room to visit with Santa and to receive their gifts. Sweden-based Skanska, with offices in Parsippany, N.J., and NYC, is one of the world’s leading construction groups.

Words and images used to describe people with disabilities can create a clear-cut constructive image or a tactless depiction that increases the use of humiliating phrases. Often people use terms they feel are perfectly acceptable without realizing the impact they might have on someone with a disability. For example, words to avoid include: abnormal, invalid, misshapen, spaz, disfigured, lame, according to June Isaacson Kailes, a disability policy consultant. Kailes has created some guidelines regarding acceptable and unacceptable terms to use when describing people with disabilities:

Acceptable: He has spina bifida.

Unacceptable: He was afflicted with spina bifida.

Acceptable: She has cerebral palsy.

Unacceptable: She is cerebral palsied, spastic.

Acceptable: A person who uses a wheelchair.

Unacceptable: A person who is wheelchair bound.

Acceptable: She has a disability.

Unacceptable: She is crippled.

Acceptable: A person with a developmental disability or intellectual disability.

Unacceptable: Retard, feebleminded, idiot.

Acceptable: Seizure.

Unacceptable: Fit.

Acceptable: A person who has a speech disability.

Unacceptable: Mute.