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Celebrating Success at St. Mary’s

December 30, 2024 | Comments Off on Celebrating Success at St. Mary’s

In the spirit of New Year’s and making resolutions, the staff at St. Mary’s decided to reflect on the individuals’ goals set at the beginning of 2024 and progress made in achieving them throughout the year; this ultimately led to a short awards presentation led by staff to celebrate their own and each other’s development throughout the year. Each group leader acknowledged all the individuals in their group that has shown any notable growth or progress in a specific area with a certificate of achievement. While not everyone received a certificate, there were countless people at St. Mary’s whose growth over the past 12 months was recognized and commended in front of their peers.

Thank you to the dedicated staff of St. Mary’s for helping our individuals achieve their goals, and major props to Rosita for developing this idea in the first place. We hope it remains a tradition at St. Mary’s that will eventually make its way to Bainbridge and Tarrytown!

IAHD’s Got (Holiday) Spirit

December 26, 2024 | Comments Off on IAHD’s Got (Holiday) Spirit

❄️The holidays are always a special time here at IAHD. Our day habs do a spectacular job of developing programs and activities that will surely make everyone begin to feel oh so very merry. This article talks about the wonderful things done and memories made throughout our day programs this December.

☕ St. Mary’s day program came up with the sweetest idea to stay warm during the chilly holiday season: a hot chocolate bar! They had multiple kinds of cocoa and toppings for the individuals to indulge in before they played their weekly BINGO games– of course, with a holiday twist!

🎅 The Christmas fun made its way to our Tarrytown day program as well, as they had received a visit from a very special visitor from the North Pole. With help from the Harrison Police Department, our individuals not only got to meet Santa himself, but they all also received a present from his sack of gifts. Thank you to the Harrison PD for coming to visit and distributing gifts like the hardest working elves around!

🎄The halls of our Tarrytown were transformed into a true winter wonderland. The walls were decorated to look like a bright blue sky on a chilly winter day, and there was “snow” that covered the ground and trees. The trees also were decorated with warm colored string lights and some tinsel to make the hall even more festive. Everyone had a great time walking through this beautiful, makeshift outdoor landscape without ever having to face the cold weather outside!

🧦 The IAHD Champions really leaned into the giving spirit of the Christmas season. Some of the members went to the Volunteer NY office down the road in Tarrytown Volunteer, where they made and packaged a small handmade gift for those who live in nursing homes. Of all of the crafts that were completed that day by the volunteers from various day programs, the Champs made about a third of all the “sock cupcakes” that were completed!

🎁The Champions also decided to participate in the USPS Operation Santa, in which they chose a letter written by a family who couldn’t afford to celebrate Christmas this year and bought gifts for them to have under their tree. The group made sure each present was perfectly wrapped before they were boxed up and mailed out, hopefully making one family’s Christmas magical.

🔔 We also held our second annual holiday sing along at Bainbridge in early December! You can read (and hear!) all about it in this article.

We hope all the members of our IAHD community had a wonderful holiday season!

The Magic of NYC in December

December 23, 2024 | Comments Off on The Magic of NYC in December

⭐Being so close to New York City, our residence homes are able to take advantage of all the things Manhattan has to offer, especially during the holiday season. Our Ryer and Yorktown homes did exactly that; keep reading this article to see how they went out on the town!

⭐Team Ryer took 5th Ave by storm, visiting all the holiday window and light displays!

⭐Ryer also visited the iconic Rockefeller Christmas Tree, as well as some of the other major sites in that area, including St. Patrick’s Cathedral and Saks 5th Avenue.

⭐The ladies of Ryer also donned their best red outfits to wear as they enjoyed the city at night on the day of its annual SantaCon!

⭐Meanwhile, the men of our Yorktown residence looked picture perfect in their photobooth pictures taken at a holiday craft fair right outside New York City in Nyack.

⭐Yorktown also went out on the town, heading into Manhattan to play tourist, visiting places like the Louis Vuitton flagship store that has been designed to look like one of the brand’s signature trunk suitcases.