If you follow JMF on social media, you’ve likely seen photos from our programs. Photos that show staff members implementing disABILITY Awareness curriculum in schools, photos of Joseph Maley Friends puppeteers performing skits, and photos that show athletes of ALL abilities learning and laughing alongside their Joseph Maley Fitness volunteer mentor.
What you don’t typically see, is all the work, energy, and preparation that goes into making these programs, and this impact, possible. For the penultimate blog of 2019, we want to show you all the hard work that our staff and volunteers put into these programs year-round, and share with you how you can support children of ALL abilities in 2020.
disABILITY Awareness:
With over 40 schools to visit each school year, Joseph Maley disABILITY Awareness staff travels extensively across central Indiana. Thankfully, the JMF van helps to ease the load, and allows our program associates to travel from school to school with all the equipment necessary to implement disABILITY Awareness curriculum.
The photos below show the amount of equipment that our program associates load, unload, and travel with each week.
$114 fills the gas tank of the JMF van for two months, helping to transport program materials and equipment to schools around central Indiana. Will you consider an end-of-year donation to JMF, and support curriculum that educates students about acceptance for ALL?
Joseph Maley Friends:
Typically, each week of disABILITY Awareness begins with a Joseph Maley Friends performance. Eighth-grade students from local schools perform skits for students in grades Pre-K through 4th, and answer any questions they might have about friendship, disabilities, or the puppets in the skit.
To prepare for the shows, puppet troupes have practices the week before a performance, rehearsing the skits they will be performing in the upcoming week. Puppeteers also arrive early the day of performances to unpack the puppets and set-up the stage.
Our puppeteers give their time and skills to teach younger audiences about kindness, friendship, and acceptance of ALL. For $110 dollars, you can provide a scholarship for a middle school student to attend the Joseph Maley Friends weeklong summer training camp to learn how to perform for younger students on topics related to disABILITY Awareness, and HOPE.
Joseph Maley Fitness:
With over a dozen recreational activities for children of ALL abilities, Joseph Maley Fitness is on the move year round. In December, Joseph Maley Fitness holds adaptive yoga sessions each week, offering participants the opportunity to experience the physical, emotional, and social benefits associated with yoga activities.
Before each session, Joseph Maley Fitness staff and volunteers move tables and chairs at the JMF Enrichment Center, clearing space to lay out yoga mats. Afterwards, mats are disinfected, rolled back up, and stored away for the next week.
Each and every Joseph Maley Fitness sport requires it’s own unique version of this set-up and tear-down schedule. Most of these sports occur off-site – at gyms, pools, and parks across central Indiana, and require transporting equipment to and from the Joseph Maley Enrichment center in the JMF van.
Joseph Maley Fitness provides fun, safe, and empowering opportunities for athletes of ALL abilities to experience the joy of physical recreation. For $150, your donation would support a sports pass scholarship for one athlete to participate in the three Joseph Maley Fitness activities of their choosing in 2020.
If you’d like to see more photos of Joseph Maley Foundation programs in action, you can follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.