We love our supporters!

We love to celebrate when people come together and help us make people’s lives better! Students from Carlisle High School, employees from Sycamore Hospital and a bunch of holiday angels all put together holiday gift bags and brought joy to our clients this holiday season!

For the past couple of years, great grandmother Helen Reese took it upon herself to spearhead the drive to fill these gift bags.  After Helen’s recent passing, her great granddaughter Hannah gathered her friends from Carlisle High School and collected items for the gift bags, in tribute to her great grandmother. 
Along with them, another friend our ours, Renee Sarber, Helen's granddaughter, brought together her friends who work with her at Sycamore Hospital to add goodies to our gift bags.

A third group to help fill our gift bags are parishioners from Faith and Mighty Fortress Lutheran Churches. For nearly 10 years, these churches have worked hard every fall, gathering items that fill our gift bags and put a smile on everyone’s face! Donna Morgan, from Mighty Fortress, was here for our party and handed out the gift bags!

We are always grateful to our supporters, who

are so vital to making our programs a success!

Validation of the services that we offer

We Care Arts works to provide the best possible services to our clients, and we need to assure them, their families, our funders, and our partner agencies that entrust us to provide services, that our organization has been evaluated and approved by agencies who monitor facilities such as ours.  This assurance creates confidence that our programs and services are effective and meet expectations. Below, please read about three of these agencies that we have succeeded in meeting standards.

CARF

The Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities, CARF International, is an independent, nonprofit accreditor of health and human services providers. The CARF International group of companies currently accredits more than 50,000 programs and services at 25,000 locations. More than 10 million persons of all ages are served annually by 7,000 CARF-accredited service providers. CARF accreditation extends to countries in North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa.

OMHAS

The Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, OhioMHAS,  provides statewide leadership of a high-quality mental health and addiction prevention, treatment and recovery system. Community mental health agencies require certification by OhioMHAS when they provide mental health services that are funded by a community mental health board. 

 

ADAMHS

Addiction and Mental Health Services, ADAMHS, of Montgomery County is responsible for the planning, funding and monitoring of public mental health and alcohol and other drug addiction services. Under Ohio law, the ADAMHS is one of 50 Boards coordinating the public behavioral health system in Ohio. The has the legal responsibility and authority for the provision of mental health and addiction treatment services and contracts with provider agencies to deliver services that assist consumers and clients on the road to recovery.

5 Tips to a Positive Attitude

Have you wondered what factors can best contribute to having a positive attitude?  I have, and I have also learned so much from my life experiences as a person with multiple physical disabilities. I would like to take this opportunity to briefly share a little bit about myself and how having a positive attitude makes such a huge difference in my life. 

Although there are many factors that lead to having and maintaining a positive attitude, I want to share 5 main tips for you to consider. This is a great way for us to come together to celebrate October as Positive Attitude Awareness Month!

Having a positive attitude 

leads to success, both in your relationships and your work. We are able to perform better at work, in the community, and in our family life if we have a positive attitude. These tips can help:

                                                        1.    You are in control – you are in control of your attitude, so do not let anyone else change your attitude in a negative way. Even if you are having a bad day, you can choose to remain positive.

      2.  You are accountable - Remember that you alone, are accountable for things in your work and in your life. Do not blame others for things that happen in your life.

      

  3. Be optimistic – believe in yourself, your co-workers, your family, etc. If you are optimistic, others will follow your lead.

  4. Be solution oriented – you will always have challenges in

     your life. With a positive attitude, you can come up 

     with solutions to overcome those challenges.

  5. Show gratitude – showing gratitude means seeing the good in other people, saying thank you, and showing your appreciation. This will make the other person feel great and help them to have a positive attitude, which will also make you feel good. 

Despite my multiple physical disabilities, including hearing 

loss, vision loss, motor neuropathy and respiratory functioning, I have faced many challenges throughout my life which could have caused me to become negative and bitter. However, I choose to always be as optimistic as possible. According to tip #3, I have definitely learned from this experience, that it is important to have confidence and stay positive, even if you are going through a difficult time.  As a result, people will be encouraged to follow you and do the same.

Even though my health was on a rapid downhill regression 

during high school and college, I was determined to achieve my goals, receive my high school diploma and a Bachelor’s Degree in  Rehabilitation Services. After graduating from college, I began the next chapter in my life by working as a Developmental Assistance, here at We Care Arts. This was a great experience working with clients and other with individuals who also value the importance of having a positive attitude. One important thing that I encourage you to keep in mind, based on what I have seen and experienced, is to never give up, as there is always a way to achieve your goals, live the best life possible, and set a good example for others.

Even though I know every one of us is different, I want you 

to know how important having faith is to me. I have definitely learned that if it is His will, He will make your prayers and desires happen, in His time.

So, how are you going to maintain a positive attitude today? 

Take some time to consider this and how you can use these tips in your everyday life. Here are some photos of me and my experiences here at We Care Arts, as well as my amazing companion, my first service dog who is a Goldendoodle named Sparrow! 

Holiday Open House

Are you planning on making your own holiday decorations? Come join us at the We Care Arts Holiday Open House. 

• Saturday, November 4th 
• 10 am - 2 pm
• 3035 Wilmington Pike in Kettering

 
 Our Holiday Open House is a fun event for the whole family! Kids (of all ages) can make their own creations at our Make It / Take It.

 
 For a $5 donation, they can make 3 different ornaments and gifts of their choice from our large selection. All types of craft supplies will be furnished, and ideas and help are available from our friendly “elves”.  

Meanwhile, Mom can shop for one-of-a-kind gifts in our unique Gift Shop.

And think about it, Mom.... 

      Let the glitter and paint fall on OUR floor!

We really hope to see you there, it would be an awesome opportunity to celebrate the holiday season together. 

Don't forget to mark your calendars, and to spread the word to your friends, family, and colleagues. Please share this event on social media for us! Click this link! 

Pumpkin Painting Event

Are you looking for a fun Halloween event to participate in? Paint Your Own Pumpkin! Jump into the Halloween season with We Care Arts’ Paint Your Own Pumpkin event! Kids (of ALL ages) can paint a pumpkin any way they like and take it home, all for $5! We will provide all the supplies and our “Halloween Angels” will be there to help! Join us on Saturday, October 14 from 10am to 2pm in the Town and Country Breezeway for this fun and creative event! 

We truly hope to see you there so we can all have a blast as a family and enjoy fellowship together. This is the perfect time to get pumpkins and decorate them at such a good price. Then take your pumpkins home to decorate your place and to help get you into the Halloween Spirit. Please feel free to spread the word with your friends, family, and colleagues. Please feel free to share the flyer (below) on social media.

Celebrate Your Style!

Celebrate the beginning of fall with

We Care Arts!

Watch our artists walking the runway in our fashion show and enjoy an amazing breakfast buffet at NCR Country Club, overlooking acres of gorgeous fall foliage. On Saturday, October 7 from 10am to noon, the fashion show will feature hand-crafted wearable art modeled by our clients.  Shop for home décor, holiday items, jewelry and much more as you support We Care Arts!

We are very pleased that local celebrity Holly Allen will host our Celebrate Your Style event and brighten it with her special sparkle! Holly spent nearly a decade in broadcast news, including as a news anchor at WDTN. Now she is Marketing and Communication Director at the Dayton Chamber of Commerce. Thank you, Holly, for coming to join the fun!

During the show you will get to see several of our amazing clients modeling, including Steve that you read about last week, Erica, Betsy, Robert, Morgan, and Cindy. Let's give them a big THANK YOU for their hard work and time that helps make a huge difference in our community.

Fashion icons Erica and Betsy are very good friends and Betsy says that they are “twins”! Erica is from Trinidad and Tobago via Brooklyn and Betsy, with her myriad of health and developmental issues, was adopted by the Boesch family of Kettering. These lovely ladies both come to our program on Mondays and Wednesdays, and keep the place jumping with their fun personalities!

 

For reservations, click THIS LINK or call We Care Arts at 937.252.3937. Tickets are $40 per person or put together a table of 10 friends and the price per person is $35!  Ticket deadline is Friday, Sept 29. 

Another Amazing Family Member

Steve was born in Kirksville, Missouri and his family moved all over the country when he was a kid, due to his father’s job as a radiologist. He was always tall because he was born with Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome, which causes gigantism, along with other conditions. Steve has always enjoyed the outdoors, being very fond of animals and hiking. So his early career choices are not surprising: trail guide in Montana and working on a commercial fishing boat in Kodiak, Alaska. He enjoyed Montana’s beauty, while working on a fishing vessel required four months of working seven days a week from 8am to 10pm.  But the benefits were that he saw many killer whales, seals and sharks, along with lots of other sea life.

Around 2006, he visited We Care Arts, and was impressed by the artwork in our gallery. Prior to that, he had become a client of South Community in 2002, after a very bad time with personal problems that caused him a psychotic incident.  He has a long history of self-harm but now is feeling much better and stronger. He has two children, both of which are very musical. His son has just graduated from Fairmont High School, and is now enrolled in the Firefighter program at Sinclair Community College. His daughter is a senior at Ohio State University, where she is studying biomedical engineering.

Steve loves coming to We Care Arts and thinks that everyone here is just great! He feels that the instructors are excellent and very patient, and encourage the artists to try new things. He attends our fiber arts class, and has recently joined another class where the artists are learning to use a sewing machine. He enjoys the variety of people at We Care Arts and likes to talk to everyone and see what kind of artwork they are doing!

Our amazing tall guy, Steve Weiss, will be modeling for us at #celebrateyourstyle fashion show this year! We figured that with his 6 foot 8 inch frame, we won’t be able to lose track of him! Celebrate Your Style will be held Saturday October 7^th, 2017 from 10 am to 12pm at NCR Country Club. We hope to see your smiling faces there! Buy your tickets here! https://wecarearts.networkforgood.com/events/3456-celebrate-your-stlye

Fiber Arts Class

We wanted to make sure you all knew of one of our very popular classes that takes place at the Berkley center, our main site, on Monday afternoons. We love seeing how much everyone enjoys taking this sewing class together. We wanted to share the excitement with you all.

Our fiber arts class has been very popular with our clients but we had many requests from them to learn how to sew with a sewing machine. Sewing machines can be quite challenging sometimes and learning their idiosyncrasies takes time and focus. So our teacher Sharen has created a manual and conducts weekly class so our clients can learn these skills. Sharen loves it when a “light bulb” goes off as her sewing students do things correctly and understand the techniques to use.  Sewing can be quite an exact science!

Sewing machines can be temperamental things so Sharen provides each student with a specific machine to use when they are here. She feels that they should have ownership of their ability to use their sewing machine.  The students also give their sewing machines names! Precious, Buttermilk and Bob of Borneo are just some of the funny titles they have! 

When the students begin working with their sewing machine, they have to start with making their own monster pin cushion.  Then they move on to stuffed animals, mug rugs (very popular!) and potato bags, for cooking your potato in the microwave. They also create handbags and totes and door draft stoppers for keeping out the winter cold.

Baby and adult bibs are very popular along with our beautiful aprons. You can find these wonderful products at our gift shop in Town and Country Shopping Center, or at our main studio gift shop at 3035 Wilmington Pike. Either store is a great place for your special holiday shopping!

Below are the open hours for our two shops.

Berkley Center:

Monday - Friday 9am - 5pm

Town and Country Shopping Center:

Monday - Thursday 4pm - 7pm

Friday 11am - 7pm

Saturday 10a - 7pm

Sunday 12pm - 5pm

Come see the amazing crafts and meet more of our We Care Arts Family!

Celebrating Recovery Awareness Month

Come join We Care Arts in celebrating National Recovery Awareness Month and promoting the importance of living a healthy life! We truly encourage each and every one of you to consider recovering and improving you health. There are so many different options that can help make strides in recovery including art therapy. Today let's learn about what National Recovery Awareness Month is, how it's related to art therapy, and hear some amazing quotes from our special members of the We Care Arts family.

National Recovery Month (Recovery Month) is a national observance held every September to educate Americans that substance use treatment and mental health services can enable those with a mental and/or substance use disorder to live a healthy and rewarding life. Recovery Month celebrates the gains made by those in recovery, just as we celebrate health improvements made by those who are managing other health conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, asthma, and heart disease. The observance reinforces the positive message that behavioral health is essential to overall health, prevention works, treatment is effective, and people can and do recover.

There are millions of Americans whose lives have been transformed through recovery. Since these successes often go unnoticed by the broader population, Recovery Month provides a vehicle for everyone to celebrate these accomplishments. Each September, tens of thousands of prevention, treatment, and recovery programs and facilities around the country celebrate National Recovery Month. They speak about the gains made by those in recovery and share their success stories with their neighbors, friends, and colleagues. In doing so, everyone helps to increase awareness and furthers a greater understanding about the diseases of mental and substance use disorders.

Addiction to drugs or alcohol has many different roots. From childhood traumas to stress, depression, and PTSD, there are quite a few reasons people turn to substances, and everyone reacts to them differently. Because there are so many delicate factors involved, there are also many treatments available, including art therapy, which can afford those in recovery a chance to find a way to relieve those feelings with something creative.

Art therapy can also help the individual come to terms with past incidents and lessen shame, which is often a side-effect to seeking help. And in most types of creative activity, there are few rules. The creation is entirely the artist’s own, from idea to execution. Below are some quotes we received from our clients, which expressed how art here at We Care Arts has helped them through their recovery. 
"We Care Arts has become an extended family for me. Instead of going to bars and other such places, this place provides a chance to socialize and accomplish something with my artwork." 
"It helps me a lot to be around people. When you get sober, it is a very lonely experience. I had to give up all my friends from the past.  Here I find that everyone is very positive and it is fun to be together and be creative." 
"The staff and clients at We Care Arts have improved my sense of self-worth by encouraging my artistic pursuits with suggestions and compliments." 
"I find it much easier to stay focused when doing my artwork here since there is a group of people sitting together and we are all making art."

What working at the We Care Arts store means to Mr. & Mrs. Scholl

Please join us in congratulating Mr. & Mrs. Scholl, who are members of our We Care Arts family, who have come together to make their own family. We were blessed to have the opportunity to speak with them this past Monday to learn about the wonderful time they have had with their jobs at the Town and Country WCA store. This newlywed couple met during their time at We Care Arts. Jen would sometimes go to the back to work on clay sculptures so she could talk to Aaron. After getting to know one another they got married on June 17, 2017.

Aaron and Jen both enjoy working at the Town and Country store while also working other places.  Jen has been working at the store since it opened in October 2015. Aaron recently started working there toward the end of July 2017. Their schedules vary depending on the month. Jen works on Mondays and weekends. Aaron works two Tuesdays every month and 1 Thursday a month. They have various responsibilities during their work hours. Jen interacts with customers to give them an insight on what happens at WCA. She also works the cash register, keeps the store clean, and moves merchandise around to make sure that the store has a fresh look. Aaron is responsible for greeting people, telling them all WCA does, and writing thank you notes for people that have made purchases. Aaron also said he gets used to dust a lot since he is the tallest person that works there. In addition to working at Town and Country they both have other jobs. Aaron works cleaning office buildings. Jean works as a Wavier provider for a 17 year old girl. Together Jen and the teen work on living skills, homework, and social outings.

Being able to work at Town and Country has given Aaron and Jen a lot of enjoyment.  Jen said, “I enjoy spreading the WCA message about how much art helps people, including myself. Working at Town and Country also allowed me to be able to get my own apartment in 2016 because of the additional income. It’s really neat seeing people get excited about the art we make at WCA.” Aaron also loves seeing other people’s artwork getting sold and having interaction with the customers. The customers at the shop really enjoy knowing that the client who made the product will get a percentage of the purchase price. The teachers at WCA work with each client, whatever their abilities, so they can have products in the store to sell. The store has been a great addition for WCA because of the outreach and education to the public that has been spread. The busiest time of the year for the store is the beginning of fall until the end of the New Year. Aaron said, “People are surprised to learn that we take special orders. For example, we make adult bibs and if someone wants a special color/pattern, we can accommodate that. People also come to us with an idea or picture and we do our best to replicate their vision.

We hope you can come to the store to enjoy all of the amazing works of art that are for sale as well as meet Aaron, Jen, and all of the other wonderful employees!

Town and Country WCA Store Hours:

Monday – Thursday 4-7

Friday 12-7

Saturday 10-7

Sunday 12-5

What a SUCCESS Arts and Drafts was!!!!!

THANK YOU SO MUCH to everyone who took the time to help with our 5k and Arts and Drafts events that happened earlier this month. We also want to thank all of your who came out to support us. You truly contributed to making these events successful. This year marks our 2nd year doing our 5k Run, Stroll, and Roll followed by our Arts and Drafts Fest. We are excited to share that we tripled the amount of money we made last year. From the two events we raised over $17,800 which was an 18% increase from last year. We wish you could have seen what an amazing time everyone had.

It put a smile on our faces seeing people enjoy their time hanging out, getting tattoos, and having some beverages. People also enjoyed listening to live music from various live bands and an amazing performance by "Signing Hands". They are a group of clients at We Care Arts who are learning sign language. Please click the link to watch their wonderful performance: https://youtu.be/ByKwq3cFbU8

Please join us in giving a big thank you to all our sponsors, vendors, tattoo artists, and band members who helped to make this event such a success. They helped provide such a fun place for the people in the community to come and join. For those of you who came to this year's event please feel free to comment with your thoughts and suggestions for next year. We look forward to hearing your voices and it will truly help with planning for next year!!!

Emerald Arts Party

Get your Irish on at the Dublin Pub on Tue, Aug 22 from 5:30 to 8:30 pm to enjoy the creative songwriting and the Celtic musical energy of Dulahan while helping We Care Arts!

For your $25 ticket, you will enjoy drink specials and a delicious Irish buffet of heavy appetizers, and use your Irish luck to win one of our wonderful Silent Auction baskets! Make sure you mark your calendar for next Tuesday. It's in less than one week! This would be the perfect night to relax and enjoy drinks, appetizers, music, and a silent auction with others. Please share this with anyone you feel who may be interested.

For more information on how to buy tickets please click here: https://wecarearts.networkforgood.com/events/3304-we-care-arts-emerald-arts-party 

or call 937-252-3937

SEE YOU TUESDAY!!!!!!

Meet Another Family Member

Meet another member of our amazing We Care Arts family, Theresa Sauter. Our Mallory Holler felt blessed to have the opportunity to interview her on Monday and learn about her hobbies and interests as well as hearing her enthusiasm for spreading the word of We Care Arts and who we are.

Theresa Sauter spent all of her life here in the Dayton area. She has one older sister whom she is very close to. She attended Centerville High School and graduated in 2007. After that she went on to Sinclair Community College studying Liberal Arts. This was her choice of major because she had a dream of becoming a writer for the newspaper. Theresa enjoys engaging in all kinds of activities such as hanging out with friends, going to movies, shopping,  and going on picnics. She also truly enjoys scrapbooking and playing video games during her free time.

     Theresa first came to We Care Arts with her class at Centerville High School. Then she started coming through the Adult Transition Program through the school. Later she started coming to WCA regularly in June 2016.
Some of her favorite types of art to be involved with are pottery, clay, and painting. During her time here she learned to knit and one of her favorite projects so far was making scarves and purses. Her favorite thing about here is being able to be around all of her wonderful friends and the freedom to express her personality through art.

 Expressing her passion for being here, Theresa said, “We Care Arts is a great place to be and I would recommend this place to anyone because everyone is nice and you get to do things that you don’t normally get to do. We Care Arts helps me with motor skills, I love working with my hands.”