Happy New Year from the Missoula YODA group! The year of 2011 was full of activities for us. We gained many new members. As a group we did a lot of new things. We watched an episode of Glee that illustrated some important points about disability perception. We got involved with the 2011 Legislative session by talking about issues related to youth and writing letters to legislators. We even had two youth testify in front of the Appropriations Committee in favor of continuing funding for the Montana Youth Transition Project.
We had some fun times too!
We went to a men Griz basketball game. We also played a rousing game of Nerf capture the flag, and some of our high school members helped in the planning process. The Nerf activity had the most members in attendance to date. In the summer we did our annual accessible fishing trip and BBQ in the Bitterroot. We also attended a Griz football game that was sponsored by Griz Kids, and we went to Summit’s Halloween Social. Thanks to Greg and Justin for helping us set up at the Social, run the cake walk and take the non perishable food items that were collected to the Missoula Food Bank.
On December 14 we had a Christmas Party. We played games, watched a movie and had a pot-luck.
We’re looking forward to another great and productive year in 2012. Our goal is to do more social advocacy work as a group. In January we are going to participate in a focus group for the all-abilities playground organizers. They are planning to build an accessible playground at McCormick park for all children to use. Of course we will have a lot of fun also. Thank you to all of the YODA members for a fabulous year, lets have another fabulous one next year!
To follow the Playground Project visit: www.facebook.com/ThePlaygroundProject or go to http://missoulaspecialneedsfamilies.com/the-playground-project
Cara Wherley, Youth Specialist
