Number of Participants: 25
Hours Donated: 5
Value of Time Served: $1,056
Event Amount Raised: $10,000
Event Type: Advocacy & Human Rights
Sport: Girls Lacrosse
School: Canandaigua Academy
Date: April 30, 2024
Location:
Eastview Mall
Pittsford Victor Road, Victor
NY
About:
The Canandaigua Girls Lacrosse team has helped raise awareness and support for children with disabilities in the Finger Lakes for several years. This year, the team went above and beyond to reach over 120 children with disabilities.
Happiness House is a local non-profit agency that offers integrated pre-school classes for students with and without disabilities. They host an annual Autism Awareness and Acceptance Walk each year – focusing on offering family-centered and sensory sensitive experiences for children with disabilities, including autism. At the Walk, the team runs a sports clinic offering adaptive equipment to engage children at the walk and “coach” them through scoring a goal, balancing with a lacrosse stick or throwing to a partner. Families are able to watch and support as their child takes on a new challenge and works with the players often with fantastic results. The children come away with smiles after having accomplished a new skill and the players come away with a pride in having connected with many little ones. Honestly, a number of children are reluctant to leave the clinic and go with their families to the walk itself.
New as of this year, the captains initiated a visit to the preschool in advance to meet all the students as a way of encouraging them to participate in the Walk. On April 15th, 8 seniors spent over 3 hours interacting with all the students in 5 different classrooms. The team brought the adaptive equipment as well as stickers and flyers to remind students about the walk and encourage their participation. With a little help from the teachers and aides, the players quickly learned different approaches to connecting with the little ones. And their plan worked as many of the students ended up coming to the Walk and finding their favorite player.
With the extra effort and promotion, participation in the Autism Awareness and Acceptance Walk increased by 13% over the previous year. The players were also very excited to support a classmate that had been chosen to be an Honorary Chair of the event.
