Located throughout Lancaster County are seven centers that exist to give adults and children with special needs from the Plain community a chance to learn, socialize, and take part in productive work. The workshops also offer the families of these individuals respite. The centers are Sunny Sunbeam, Caring Hearts, Penn Johns Sunbeam, Special Hearts Circle, New Horizons, Valley Workshop, and Shady Hollow. The more than 80 students who attend the centers range in age from 14 to 76. A staff of 35 caregivers works with the students. All the centers were closed in March under COVID-19 restrictions, but organizers of the centers hope to reopen them in the late summer or fall.
To help support the centers, organizers hold a yearly auction. This year's auction will be the 15th annual benefit, and it will be held on Monday, July 6, at Fisher's Quality Dairy Sales, 3304 B Old Philadelphia Pike, Ronks. The auction will begin at 11 a.m., but a variety of food items will be offered for sale beginning at 5:30 a.m. Quilts will be sold beginning at 4 p.m.
Among the items that have been gathered for the auction are flowers and plants, toys, and chests. Large specialty items, including swing sets, sheds, and carriages, will be sold beginning at 6 p.m.
Food that will be available for purchase at the auction includes breakfast items such as egg sandwiches, doughnuts, breakfast logs, and coffee. Lunch items will include cheesesteak sandwiches, barbecued chicken and ribs, sub sandwiches, ham and cheese sandwiches, fruit cups, french fries, and soft pretzels. Ice cream, fry pies, and baked goods will be on the dessert menu. Food may be eaten on-site or taken out.
The centers offer a variety of activities for students. At Sunny Sunbeam, located in Georgetown, the students gather three days a week from 9 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. each day. Guided by up to five teachers, the students begin their days with devotions and then spend time in song. They make keychains and rolled-candy dolls. They also assemble hygiene kits for Mennonite Central Committee, and newspaper is torn up to create animal bedding. During news time, any of the students can share news from home, and students often choose to tell about new babies and new puppies. Lessons, which include reading, flash cards, telling time, memory verses, money, and German, are also on the agenda to help students retain what they have learned at school. Students bring their lunch two days a week, but one day a week a teacher makes lunch, and students are welcome to bring desserts or other courses. On nice days, lunch may be eaten outside in a fenced yard behind the center. Students take turns helping to mow the grass and tending the flower beds in the yard.
Presently, organizers of the auction report that the parents and scholars really miss the centers. The closing has made it harder for the parents, and the students miss being out of the home with other people. "The special adults cannot wait until they may go back (to the centers)," reported auction organizer Ben Kauffman.
Readers who would like to donate items to the sale may call 717-768-8497, 717-442-4144, or 717-354-2380. The auction number on the day of the sale will be 717-983-8415.
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