Delsea Students Spread the Word on Germs

As published on www.thedailyjournal.com

Delsea Regional High School students presented a Cough and Flu Prevention Presentation on Dec. 21 at the Durand Academy, a special education school in Woodbury.

As part of their service learning project, the seniors are participating in Y.O.D.A (Youth Organized for Disaster Action) with a goal to make the community better prepared and confident when facing an emergency situation. Their first project has been to disseminate information to elementary school students about the importance of hand-washing and other flu prevention tips.

Students created skits, songs and other hands-on activities including games to educate children about germs, washing their hands and keeping healthy during the flu season.

Characters such as the Germ, who fought Hand Sanitizer Man/Woman and SpongeBob helped to bring home the importance of hand-washing.

Senior English teachers, Shera Jahn, Tanya Mastrokyriakos and Jessica Ippolito along with teacher’s aide, Rob Gaetano worked with students to organize the presentation.

Dr. Tom Ryan, Principal at the Durand Academy, encourages his students to turn on their iPods and iPads every day during class.

By Carly Q. Romalino/Gloucester County Times Gloucester County Times
Read this story on nj.com

Dr. Tom Ryan, principal at the Durand Academy in Woodbury, encourages his students to turn on their iPods and iPads every day during class.

The handheld mini-computers that would distract other mainstream kids do the opposite for Ryan's students with autism, who need the devices to give them a voice and open them up to the concept of choice.

The iPods and iPads aren't the first devices on the scene to offer interactive programs that allows people with limited verbal abilities to communicate. The Dynovox has been used for years, and works similarly to the Apple devices, but for each $10,000 Dynovox, a school can buy more than a dozen iPads, which cost only a few hundred dollars.

The functions of both devices remain similar. In addition to educational games that can be inexpensively and easily added to the iPods and iPads, communication software allows students to type in what they want to say, but are unable to speak, according to autism class teacher Samantha Panagiotopoulo.

Her students - a half dozen 10- to 13-year-olds with Autism - have limited verbal communication ability. Making a choice between two items, as easy as deciding between cookies and crackers for snack time, was impossible. The pre-teen students would just repeat the last thing she said instead of telling her what they really wanted to eat.

Now when Panagiotopoulo asks her students if they want cheese puffs or potato chips for lunch, students like 10-year-old Kianna Parker can run back to her desk, point to the icon for "I want" and pair it with the photo for cheese puffs, and the iPad will read the sentence aloud. "I want cheese puffs," the iPad will tell the teacher on Kianna's behalf.

"They can communicate something they couldn't (communicate) before," said Panagiotopoulo, who said she has noticed a decrease in her students' frustration levels since the Durand Academy introduced the Apple technology that also goes home with them.

While teachers of the school's two autism classes have noticed improvements in communication since the iPads and iPods were introduced, Ryan said there is not yet research on the books to certify the devices have an impact. But parents, too, have noticed an improvement, he said.

"There is little imperical evidence that these things work. It's purely anecdotal," he said.

The lack of research, combined with Durand's observations of success, has prompted the school to partner with software developers of iCommunicate, an assistive software for people who require visual aids, according to Ryan.

Durand's Board Announcement and Pictures Featured in Philadelphia Inquirer's "On the Board"

Durand Academy and Community Services, Mount Laurel, and its fund-raising organization, the Durand Foundation, a nonprofit organization that serves children and adults with special needs, has named Bob Pantaliano treasurer of the foundation board and Mark Tressel treasurer of the academy and community-services board. Pantaliano owns CFO 360 in Voorhees. Tressel is vice president of commercial banking for Beneficial Bank, Philadelphia.

Read the entire article on Philly.com

Delsea's YODA group takes message of hygiene to younger students around Gloucester County

By Carly Q. Romalino/Gloucester County Times Gloucester County Times

Armed Wednesday with an arsenal of hand-sanitizer, germ and flu facts, and hygiene-focused skits, members of Delsea Regional High School’s Youth Organized for Disaster Action (YODA) program cleaned up the way Durand Academy students in Woodbury keep healthy.

YODA started at Delsea five years ago when the Franklin Township-based school received a three-year grant to fund service learning projects for senior year students. Now, two years after the grant funds ran out, the extra-curricular program — which started at 15 members and grew to more than 60 this year — puts on its own fundraisers to continue programs for elementary students.

Over the last three years, YODA has taken its anti-germ program to Franklin Township’s Main Road, Caroline L. Reutter and Janvier schools, Aura School in Elk Township and Durand Academy in Woodbury.

While the message to wash hands regularly remains the same every year, each new regime of high school seniors puts their own spin on delivering the message to elementary-age students.

“It was a lot of research on our part,” said senior Katelynn Jester, 18, of Franklin. “A lot of germ facts are wordy so we go with the simplest and most interesting (facts).”

The seniors wrote skits and songs for the show, built costumes and developed games that would teach the kids about spreading sickness.

This year “Germ Bob Yuck Pants,” a spin on cartoon character Sponge Bob Square Pants, explained how bacteria is spread from classmate to classmate and how to keep from getting the flu.

“Even though you wash your hands, you’ll still catch germs,” said Ernie Ronketty, 10, a fifth-grader at the Durand Academy. “So use hand sanitizer, and keep your hands and body clean every day so you don’t catch the flu.”

After a heated game of hot potato, the lights went out. A special germ-detecting black light showed the students how germs were spread during the game of catch with the ball.

“I never used to wash my hands before, but I’m going to now because they showed us the purple ball,” said Dylan Volpe, a 14-year-old Durand Academy ninth-grader. “It’s important to have perfect hygiene.”

While Wednesday’s show at the Woodbury school isn’t YODA’s first, Durand Academy Principal Dr. Thomas Ryan said the annual Delsea students’ visit has a two-fold benefit for his students.

“They learn about disease prevention in an enjoyable way and get to interact with non-disabled peers,” Ryan said. “It’s something that high school students can do with our kids that adults can’t.”

And year after year, Delsea’s “big kids” are remembered at the Woodbury, Franklin and Elk Township schools, according to YODA’s club advisor Shera Jahn, a teacher at Delsea.

“They (seniors) are roll models whether they know it or not. The kids do remember it and take it home with them,” said Jahn.

Although it had been a year since YODA visited the school, Ernie said he knew exactly what his day had in store when kids in red Delsea t-shirts filed out of the Delsea school bus.

“I remembered them all,” said Ernie. “I said, ‘Hey! It’s YODA!”

Related topics: delsea-regional-gloucester-county, elk-township-gloucester-county, franklin-township-gloucester-county, woodbury-gloucester-county

What is ANCOR?

The American Network of Community Options and Resources is a nonprofit trade association representing and advocating on behalf of the more than 800 private providers of services and supports for nearly 500,000 Americans with disabilities that employ over 400,000 direct support staff in 49 states and Washington, D.C. ANCOR’s efforts in the area of public policy, federal legislative and regulatory initiatives, judicial results, state-level initiatives and the culling of leading practices have uniquely positioned it as the national presence for private providers. Congress and federal agencies turn to ANCOR as the authority in our profession. ANCOR has always been and will continue to be your eyes, ears, and voice in Washington, DC.



References:
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Best Thrift Shop

May, 2010
The votes are in and Durand Thrift Shop has won Courier-Post's "2010 Best of South Jersey" Contest for Best Thrift Shop.

Come out and check out all the great things we have to offer or send us your gently used items!!

RONALD McDONALD HOUSE CHARITIES®

RONALD McDONALD HOUSE CHARITIES® OF THE PHILADELPHIA REGION, INC.
RECOGNIZES 2009 GRANT RECIPIENTS

PHILADELPHIA - On February 23 Ronald McDonald House Charities® (RMHC®) of the Philadelphia Region, Inc. hosted a luncheon to recognize the nonprofit organizations to whom the charity granted funding in 2009, including Durand Academy and Community Services, based in Mt. Laurel, NJ.

Durand Academy and Community Services plans to use the $25,000 RMHC grant to fund building sensory rooms that will help children with communication and sensory deficits.

For more information on Ronald McDonald House Charities, please visit www.rmhc.org.