Sparc Matters is published quarterly by Sparc, a not-for-profit 501(c) 3 organization that supports children, adults and seniors with developmental disabilities.
Sparc Helps Individuals with Developmental Disabilities Improve the Quality of Their Lives Winter 2010 Sparc Matters Success Stories to Build upon see SPARC SUCCESS on page 3 Starry Night Page 4 Annual Meeting Page 6 New Shoes Page 7 www.spfldsparc.org C atherine Stromberg per- forms many jobs for Sparc – shredding, copying, fil- ing and working the front desk at the administration building. She also drives daily between each Sparc building distributing inter- office mail and dropping the U.S. mail off at the post office. Before working at Sparc, Cath- erine was participating in Sparc’s Supported Employment program where she was taught job skills, all the while trying to find employ- ment. She had a brief stint work- ing at the Willard Ice Building be- fore Sparc found her a position at its administration building. “I’ve been here three years now,” Catherine says. Spending just a little bit of time with Catherine you quickly learn a few things about her: she loves movies (Twilight to be specific), she loves cats and she loves put- ting puzzles together. One of Catherine’s many job duties at Sparc is shredding documents. Catherine wears many hats for Sparc
Transcript
Sparc Helps Individuals with Developmental Disabilities Improve the Quality of Their Lives
Winter 2010
Sparc Matters
Success Stories to Build upon
see Sparc SucceSS on page 3
Starry Night page 4
annual Meeting page 6
New Shoes page 7
w w w. s p f l d s p a r c . o rg
Catherine Stromberg per-forms many jobs for Sparc – shredding, copying, fil-
ing and working the front desk at the administration building. She also drives daily between each Sparc building distributing inter-office mail and dropping the U.S. mail off at the post office.
Before working at Sparc, Cath-erine was participating in Sparc’s Supported Employment program where she was taught job skills,
all the while trying to find employ-ment. She had a brief stint work-ing at the Willard Ice Building be-fore Sparc found her a position at its administration building.
“I’ve been here three years now,” Catherine says.
Spending just a little bit of time with Catherine you quickly learn a few things about her: she loves movies (Twilight to be specific), she loves cats and she loves put-ting puzzles together.
One of Catherine’s many job duties at Sparc is shredding documents.
Catherine wears many hats for Sparc
Sparc Matters is published quarterly by Sparc, a not-for-profit 501(c) 3 organization that supports children, adults and seniors with developmental disabilities.
Copyright 2010 by Sparc. All rights reserved.
Readers, in the ongoing effort to produce a responsive publication that interests and benefits you, Sparc welcomes your feedback, questions and ideas. Please write to Sparc, attn. Publications, 232 Bruns Lane, Springfield, IL 62702 or to [email protected].
For address changes or to decline the newsletter, contact Sparc at 793-2100.
Sparc Directors
Carlissa PuckettCEO
Craig ClarkDirector of Finance
Connie Anderson DiCensoDirector of Development & Communications
Ryan Dowd(Acting) Director of Vocational Services
Jeff JohnstonDirector of Human Resources
Greg O’Connor(Acting) Director of Residential Services
www.spfldsparc.org
Sparc’s new board membersIn November, Sparc voted six new members on to its board of
directors. Let’s take a closer look at the newcomers.
Frank BuraSkiFrank is the president of Buraski Builders, Inc. and has been build-
ing and remodeling in the Springfield area since 1981. As a member of the Sparc Endowment Board, Frank already has a
relationship with Sparc. He is excited to be even more involved with the organization’s future.
John howerterJohn is the Senior Vice President of Product Marketing at Levi,
Ray & Shoup, Inc. He is responsible for sales for the Enterprise Out-put Management product line from LRS.
“I am interested in helping Sparc because I believe that the work you do is honorable and necessary,” John says.
John & his wife Tracy have two sons, Ryan and Jay, and three grandchildren.
Larry rageLLarry is the Chief Financial Officer with St. John’s Hospital. He
has a Bachelors Degree in Accounting from the University of Illinois Springfield and a MBA from the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana.
Larry and his wife, Linda, have three children - Adam, Eric and Lauren.
tim rigByTim is a partner with Hart, Southworth & Witsman law firm in
Springfield. He earned his Bachelors degree in finance from Eastern Illinois University and his J.D. from Southern Illinois University.
Tim is currently serving on the board of directors with the Lin-coln Land Down Syndrome Society and has a six-year-old daughter, Anna, with down syndrome. Anna has participated in Sparc programs so Tim is very familiar with Sparc.
Tim and his wife, Pamela, have two more children - James and Jessica.
tim SchroeDerTim is with Hanson Professional Services, Inc., and his role at the
company is in Business Development. He grew up in Chatham but now lives in Springfield with his Wife, Betsy, and three children, Erin, Michael and Jack.
“SPARC has done so much through the years for individuals with developmental disabilities and to be honest, it’s quite an honor to be able to actively participate as a board member and help ensure it will be able to continue its vital mission well into the future,” Tim says.
Don waLDropDon Waldrop joined Springfield Clinic as its Chief Operating
Officer in February of 2010. As COO, he is responsible for Opera-tions, including all Springfield and satellite clinic locations, as well as Springfield Clinic’s Specialty Outreach program and Facilities Man-agement.
winter 2010 3
Sparc Success from page 1
Cathrine enjoys watching movies so much that she could easily roll off her top 5, which are:
1. Jaws2. Star Wars (all of them)3. Twilight4. Godzilla (1998)5. Transformers
I had to stop her after those five movies; she could have easily kept go-ing. She has over 200 movies on DVD at her home.
If she is not talking about movies, she is talking about her cat, Spike. And if you dig a little deeper you find out she has been putting puzzles together since she was 5 years old.
Catherine has found a home at Sparc, not as an individual they support but as an employee.
n Dixie JuSt LoveS to workIt’s very uplifting to talk with indi-
viduals supported by Sparc who truly enjoy their work. Dixie Metzger works at McDonalds and couldn’t be happier.
“I wanted to work at McDonalds,” Dixie says. “I do the dishes and the floors.”
In fact, two years ago at Starry Night, Sparc’s annual formal event, she spoke about wanting to work at Mc-Donald’s and it just so happened that one of the local owners was at the event and called her the next day about taking a job at one of his stores.
She’s been there two years now and when asked how things are going she lights up and says, “Great.”
As for Sparc, Dixie says they have helped her a lot.
“I like Sparc. Sparc has been good to me,” Dixie says. “They helped me with the job interview and taught me job skills.”
Before McDonalds, Dixie went to Sparc’s Developmental Training Cen-
ter and worked in the contractual work area.
“I was working at DT until I found out about the (McDonalds) job,” Dixie says.
She currently lives in a Sparc group home and says she loves to play video games and play basketball when she is not working.
Dixie is currently working at McDonalds and is loving it.
4 Sparc Matters
Event Recap
Starry night
Abe Lincoln was roaming around, 19th century music was in the air and a lot of gen-
erosity was going around at Sparc’s 11th Annual Starry Night.
This year’s event was held on Satur-day, October 9, 2010 at the Governor’s Mansion with host and hostess George Preckwinkle and Lucy Bagot, owners of the area Ace Hardware stores.
The evening featured live music from the Prairie Aires, as well as the Blues band Pleasure Chest, with Mary
Von Liski playing the piano at inter-vals. Individuals supported by Sparc provided the highlights of the evening. Brandon Von Liski got up and spoke about how his disability has pro-vided him with many opportunities. Plus, Ben Simpson and Marcy Bobell showed off their dancing talents.
Sparc would like to thank our sponsors, donors, auction participants and everyone else who attended Star-ry Night for making this a wonderful event.
Brilliant Star Event SponsorACE HARDWARE
Glittering Star Sponsor
ILLINOIS NATIONAL BANk
Shining Star Entertainment Sponsor
HART-CLAyTON
Open-Bar SponsorR.W. TROxELL
Live Auction SponsorBANk OF SPRINGFIELD
Diamonds in Ice Sponsor
WATTS COPy SySTEMS
Silent Auction SponsorFWAI ARCHITECTS
Grand evening at the Governor’s Mansion
Ben Simpson and Marcy Bobell showed off their dancing talents.
Lucy Bagot and George Preckwinkle, owners of the area Ace Hardware stores, were the hostess and host for the evening.
winter 2010 5
709 Package LiquorAlmost MagicArt By Janice
Berkshire, TomBig R of SpringfieldBrimm, Gene & Sue
Britt, ChrisBrodie, Linda
Campisi, NancyCenter for American Archeology
Citizens for DavlinCoCo Pies
Cold Stone CreameryDavis, Jim, Cindy & Sarah
Debackere, MattEastep, Les
Ed, Don & BettyFormea Ins Group Ins.Galaxy Hair Designs
Girl ScoutsGriffin, Angela
Hanson Professional ServicesIllinois Symphony Orchestra
kapp, Lynnaekoch, Janice
kurzydlo, Dorothy
La Fiesta Matt Debackere PhotographyMorrison, Linda
board members and individu-als supported by Sparc packed
the Secret Recipes banquet hall and enjoyed a nice evening out.
The dinner allowed Sparc the op-portunity to look back over another trying but successful year, look for-ward to the road ahead and give spe-cial thanks to those who went above and beyond the call of duty.
After the business portion of the meeting took place, the awards were handed out.
The newly created Dr. Earl Loschen Volunteer of the year award went to long time Sparc supporter and former board member, Gerry Gardiner.
Sparc’s Business of the year award went to Walgreens who has provided 5 different jobs at 4 different loca-tions over the year, to individuals in Sparc’s Supported Employment pro-gram.
Primo accepted the award for Em-ployer of the year and the Lasting Impression award went to Honey-well Hobbs.
The Revolutionary Award went to four individuals supported by Sparc who have fought and won personal battles for their own unalienable rights. Tim Price, Mary Jo Nance, Rob Stephens and Janice Smith have done so without the burden of doubt, with the unwillingness to compro-mise, and with an unwavering atti-tude that is both inspiring and moti-vating to others.
To round out the awards, Sparc’s Employee of the year was Margie Page and GEM awards (Going the Extra Mile) went to Tracey Oldridge and Todd Buscher.
Event Recap
Tim Price, Mary Jo Nance, Janice Smith and Rob Stephens were recipients of the Revolutionary Award.
winter 2010 7
Mailing List UpdateThis newsletter is free to all individuals wishing to receive it. If you are not currently receiving this
newsletter and would like it mailed to your home or business: please call 793-2100, e-mail your name and address to [email protected], or mail this section to the following address.
Sparc232 Bruns Lane
Springfield, IL 62702
Change of Address (check box) Removal from Mailing (check box)
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Phone: E-mail:
Solid FootingIndividuals supported by Sparc have new shoes to wear thanks to AT&T’s Pioneer Shoe Program. These individuals were fitted for their new shoes on Monday, Decem-ber 6th at the Shoe Carnival in Springfield.
AT&T has been helping Sparc fit individuals with new shoes for many years and every year the individuals are very excited and look forward to their new pair of shoes. These individuals are generally folks who have little or no additional income or no family involvement and are in much need of basic items, like shoes.
Connie Anderson DiCenso ac-cepted the position of Director of Development and Communica-
tions for SPARC. DiCenso will pro-vide leadership, direction, and management in the development, operation, and de-livery of services for the develop-
ment and communications depart-ment.
DiCenso will have primary re-sponsibility for securing financial support from non-governmental sources and for agency communi-cations, and public relations.
“I am thrilled to be joining such a dynamic, passionate, and talent-ed group of professionals that are dedicated to making such a posi-tive impact in our community”, said DiCenso.
Sparc welcomes new Dev/com director
8 Sparc Matters
232 Bruns LaneSpringfield, IL 62703
Visit us online at www.spfldsparc.org
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paiDSpringfield, ILpermit no. 628
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