Crowd pleasers

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.

Since most Matheny students and patients are full-time residents, we need volunteers to serve as recreation assistants, classroom aides, tutors and friendly visitors. Our volunteer office tries to place people in positions that meet both their interests and availability. In addition, we invite volunteer groups to host parties for residents or participate in other special projects, including fundraising activities.

Matheny students and patients have medically complex developmental disabilities. Practically everyone is in a wheelchair and many are non-verbal. Yet, underneath their physical difficulties, they like the same music, games, sports and movies as everyone else. For those willing to discover each person’s personality, the rewards are great.

If you’re interested in more information, contact the volunteer services office at (908) 234-0011, ext. 282, or email volunteers@matheny.org

Above: Centenary College students share a laugh with a Matheny student.

Below: Junior Friends of Matheny help Matheny patients enjoy Valentines Day.  The JFOM volunteers are students at Bernards High School in Bernardsville and Ridge High School in Basking Ridge.

Women Aware, an organization in New Brunswick, N.J., serves families of women who have been victims of domestic violence. Rutgers University students Kelly McCormack and Rebecca Constantinople and their sorority sisters at Alpha Chi Omega wanted to brighten the holiday season for families served by Women Aware by donating toys to the children of the abuse victims.

McCormack’s mother, Gwen, is a teacher at the Matheny School, and together they came up with a plan to get this done. Gwen McCormack knitted an afghan, which was raffled off to Matheny staff members. Adult patients at Matheny helped sell the raffle tickets, which raised $129. A Matheny student pulled out the winning ticket, and several students went on a special class outing to pick out the toys – a lesson in how to shop in the community.

Women Aware was founded 30 years ago on the belief that every human being has the right to live free from violence and the fear of violence. It currently serves up to 10 families in a nine-bedroom, 24-bed facility.

Above, from left, Rebecca Constantinople, Matheny student Bozena Geraghty and Kelly McCormack with the toys.

We recently posted about our winning the Hospital Planning and Marketing Society of New Jersey’s Percy Award for Best Small Hospital Public Relations/Media Placement. Shown here, Sandy Josephson, director of marketing and public relations for Matheny, left, accepts the award at HPMSNJ’s annual meeting from Patricia Haines, HPMSNJ president and senior planning analyst at AtlantiCare, and outgoing president Norman Tessell, director of business development, imaging systems, at Atlantis Worldwide.

Matheny has won this award for three consecutive years. This year’s award was for Matheny’s partnership with WCBS-TV and WCBS Newsradio 880 to support the annual fundraiser and community event, Miles for Matheny.

Two Girl Scout troops from Bedminster, N.J., visited Matheny recently and competed with Matheny students in adapted basketball contests and wheelchair races. These activities are part of Matheny’s special education and recreation therapy programs and also include such other adapted sports such as bowling and bocce.

The goal of the program is to encourage interaction between able-bodied students and students with disabilities, making it possible for them to compete as peers.

The Girl Scouts, all students at the Bedminster Township School, were from Troops 60077 and 60083 of the Girl Scouts Heart of New Jersey.

Above, from left, Rachel Csermak, Bianca Pineda, Chloe Warlick and Matheny student Bianca Mathis relax after a game of basketball.

The students, patients, families and staff at Matheny Medical and Educational Center would like to thank the Peapack-Gladstone community for its overwhelming support of our proposal to bring Miles for Matheny back downtown. We have always cherished our relationship with local residents, and we were truly moved by the sincere and heartwarming comments made at the recent Borough Council meeting.

We look forward to welcoming you to what we expect to be the best Miles for Matheny ever on Sunday, April 22, 2012.

Photos from Miles for Matheny 2009, the last time the event was held in downtown Peapack.

Doctors never thought that Michael Taurozzi would reach 18 years old. Michael had a stroke while still in his mother’s womb and has limited or no speech, vision or mobility. When he was five or six, his father, John Taurozzi, recalls, “it was very difficult to give him what he needed because we got to a point where it was very difficult to feed him.”

His grandmother, Elaine Brunner, recalls that, “it was hard on the whole family because he needed so much attention and care. There were two sisters, one older and one younger, and they were limited as to where they could go and when they could go. He was getting bigger, but he still needed the care like a three-month old.”

The family decided that “ having him in a full-time facility was the only choice,” says John. “We did a tremendous amount of research on facilities, and we came to the conclusion that it was Matheny all the way.”

Michael was admitted as a resident in May 2000 when he was six years old. “It was a hard decision,” adds his mother, Janice. “You still think about it every day – ‘Did I do the right thing?’ But when you come to choosing Matheny, you know you did the right thing. From the aides to the nurses to the therapists, everybody here is just amazing.” Michael’s grandfather, Jack Brunner, remembers the first time he and his wife were at Matheny. “We left with tears in our eyes and our heart pounding,” he says, “but since then we’ve realized this is the best place he could possibly be.”

For more of Michael’s story, watch for our Annual Appeal brochure in the mail this month.

Above: Michael with, from left, grandfather Jack Brunner; father John Taurozzi and grandmother Elaine Brunner.

For Tim McLoone, founder and leader of Holiday Express, bringing his band to Matheny is like visiting old friends. He and his band of merrymakers have been visiting Matheny since 2001, and McLoone, left, knows a lot of the patients and students on a first-name basis.

This year’s concert, held Sunday, December 11, in Matheny’s Robert Schonhorn Arts Center, featured traditional holiday songs, along with the group’s signature song, “Nobody Ought to be Alone on Christmas” and the always challenging audience participation on “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” During the performance, McLoone chatted up patients in the audience, telling them that Matheny is one of his favorite places.

Bedminster resident Byron Smith sang an original composition, “Santa’s Comin’.” Matheny father Jim Yedloutschnig of Cedar Grove played a hot trumpet, the Matheny Choir joined in and Holiday Express vocalist Pam McCoy displayed an incredible energy level, bounding all over the auditorium to encourage Matheny students and patients to join in the fun. Over the years, the concert has developed into a family affair as more and more parents and siblings of Matheny students and patients come to listen and become part of the interactive audience.

Holiday Express’ mission is to deliver music, food, gifts, financial support and friendship to those in need during the holiday season. The organization is made up of about 1,300 volunteers including more than 80 professional musicians. This year’s schedule encompasses 55 concerts between Christmas and New Year’s.

Below, adult patient Amanda Kochell receives a present from one of the Holiday Express elves.