Greetings from Milwaukee

Sister Magdalena

Earlier this fall, I was in Milwaukee for a meeting with all the other corporate ministries that are sponsored by the Sister's of St. Francis of Assisi. I was able to meet with several of our sisters who worked at Cushing. I thought you would  like to see the pictures I took.

Chris Pike and can you name everyone else? There is Sr. Clarinda...

Graduation 1971

Greg Wood, a Cushing alumni from Texas, and I have been communicating via email and Facebook about his time in Hanover.  Recently, he sent me a picture of his class tip with Sr. Rita to Washington, DC from 1971.  As it happened, it was the same year I graduated from high school.  What struck me  was  that my high school did not offer a trip to Washington to meet our representatives in Congress but, a school for students with disabilities provided that opportunity.  I think that was pretty progressive and another example of the commitment of our founder, Cardinal Cushing and our sponsors, The Sister's of St. Francis of Assisi to provide the highest quality education to our students.  A tradition we uphold today.


Greg is next to Sr. Rita

 Greg also donated a flag that was flown over our United States Capitol in memory of Senator Kennedy.  We will be flying it proudly on our Hanover campus.

The Russians Came and Make Way for Ducklings

Touring the campus with Jim Middleton and me.

Recently, the Weymouth Rotary welcomed a group of visiting Russian human service leaders, interested in intellectual disabilities, and toured them to various non-profit agencies.  We hosted them for a day and shared with them the Cushing Centers.



They couldn't resist the Cushing Trader.

 









Now you are probably wondering about what Make Way for Ducklings have to do with this post.  Last week, the Lederman family donated an original water color of a painting of "Make Way for Ducklings" to the student library at Hanover.  It is a childhood favorite of Class of 2011 student Amanda Lederman. Along with the  painting Amanda and her family donated 2 copies of the book in addition to many of Amanda's childhood books.



Amanda and Jude Morgan.



The Lederman's with Doug Frazier and me.



 

 











A Report from One of Our Classrooms

'Nala' Comes to Cushing

This past fall, 'Nala', a trained therapy dog has been coming on Thursdays to visit the school program. Barbara, a volunteer in the Challenger Classroom, has been doing presentations to each class with Nala. They have been learning about how to care for pets, such as Nala, by bathing, brushing, and even cleaning teeth!

Nala has also spent time with some students. They have been taking turns and doing oral reading of books and stories to Nala. The students have stated that they feel 'relaxed' while reading aloud to Nala.

We all have enjoyed the Nala visits and have learned about how animals can really help people.

The Challenger Classroom

Bill Brett's latest party photos around Boston - Boston.com

This week I attended the New England Council's Annual Dinner.

MIT's McGovern Institute Studies Autism

Last week I attended a program honoring 10 years of the McGovern Institute and its study of the brain. Among the speakers, Gerald Fischbach, M.D. of The Simons Foundation, stood out to me as he shared the work being done in understanding autism. He also explained that we are not in the middle of an autism explosion, as some media would like you to believe. Instead, we are now able to classify people who have other disabilities in addition to autism. So, we are seeing people with autism and intellectual disability, autism and bi-polar, autism and Down syndrome, etc. The actual numbers of individuals with just autism has not changed but, we are now able to include in the autism spectrum and the numbers being counted, people with autism in addition to other conditions.
Jane Pauley, who shared her own story of mental illness and Alan Alda were also among the evening's speakers.

Jo Ann and Alan Alda

All Together at Cushing Centers