Birthday boys celebrate by donating gifts to children at Walker

Ethan and Alex Shifman look forward to their birthdays every year as much as any other kid, but for the past several years, the brothers  have celebrated in a special way.

Last month Ethan and Alex visited the Walker Needham campus with their father Ken, and dropped off a carload of presents—toys and gift certificates collected at each of their birthday parties earlier this year and donated to children in residential programs at Walker.

The boys began donating their birthay gifts to Walker in 2007, and for the past three years they have asked friends and family who attend their birthday parties to bring a gift for a child at Walker. Sometimes they even include a Walker wish list of toys and other items on the party invitation, and several of their guests have been similarly inspired to designate Walker as the beneficiary of gifts from their own birthday celebrations.

The two brothers, 8 and 6 years old, learned about Walker from their mother Jill. “I wanted to help them understand and appreciate how fortunate we are, and how important it is to help others,” she said. “The Walker School helps kids who are about the same age as Ethan and Alex, and it is nearby, so on our visits they could see that they were helping kids who, despite their challenges, were a lot like them.”

The two boys look forward to the gift drop-off each year, as six-year-old Alex explains: “We like it, because other people don’t have toys, so if we give it to them, they can play too.”

While visiting Walker, they were treated to birthday cupcakes and were presented with certificates of appreciation. They have also received a heartfelt thank you from Walker executive director Richard W. Small. “Through their generosity, Ethan and Alex are helping to teach a new generation about the importance of philanthropy.”

If you would like to find out how you can turn your special celebration into an opportunity to contribute to the wellbeing of children in residential care at Walker, please contact Amy Perna, Walker annual fund manager, for more information.

2009 Fore the Children Golf Tournament raises $140,000 for Walker

More than 100 golfers spent a perfect fall afternoon at Weston Golf Club on Monday, October 5th at the annual Walker Fore the Children Golf Tournament. In the year marking the 20th anniversary of the event, the tournament raised $140,000 in support of children and families who depend on Walker programs and services.

This year the first place award for low net score went to the team led by a special guest—former longtime Red Sox rightfielder Dwight Evans. He was joined by tournament teammates Richard Beradino, George Psyhogeos, and Dr. Tom Burke. Terry O’Connor led the first place winners for low gross, along with his fellow team members Douglas Moran, Shawn Mato, and Jeff Campbell.

An active tournament committee, led by John Boyle and Paul Shorthose, ensured an enjoyable day on the course and a post-round program packed with unique auction items. Charity auctioneer, Harry Rose led the bidding on a wide range of auction prizes, including a once-in-a-lifetime helicopter ride over Boston. 

“We are fortunate to have so many generous and dedicated friends,” said Walker executive director Richard W. Small.  ”And we are grateful for the support of so many corporations that share a steadfast committment to improving our communities through philanthropy.”

This year’s tournament sponsors included Intex Solutions, Inc., Proactive Community, United Benefit Services, Middlesex Savings Bank, ATG, Bank of America, The Thordike Family, John and Mary Boyle, and Pete and De Simone.

If you are interested in serving on next year’s golf committee or would like to learn more about the tournament, please contact Nicole Hand, Walker manager of events and corporate giving, for more information.

Suitcases4Kids donates 100 suitcases to Walker residential students

Walker was the recent beneficiary of an unusual gift—approximately 100 gently used suitcases.

 The truckload of luggage was a donation was from the North Andover-based Suitcases4Kids. The suitcases will be given to children in Walker residential treatment programs—kids who often arrive at our Needham campus with a hastily gathered assortment of clothes and personal belongings. The suitcases will provide them with an alternative to the plastic garbage bags they often use transport their clothes and personal items.

 The Suitcases For Kids project began in Florida in 1995 when 10-year-old Aubyn Burnside learned that the average child in foster care moves three to four times. Adding to this disruption for some children are multiple psychiatric hospitalizations and admissions into residential programs like Walker.

 After the project lost momentum at the beginning of the decade, Suitcases4Kids was revived by Ron Nickerson, a former social worker for kids in specialized foster care and residential program director. He understands more clearly than most people how multiple foster placements can create stress and serial disruption. He is currently a foster dad to several boys with reactive attachment disorder, a diagnosis common to children who have experienced an odyssey of program placements and foster homes.

 Several of the suitcases were immediately given to children in the Walker Community-Based Treatment unit, a Needham Campus-based emergency stabilization program for children between three and ten years old and who arrived in psychiatric crisis—in some cases the result of severe trauma, abuse or neglect. Other suitcases were given to specific children at Walker who have experienced recent family disruption or who are preparing for reunification or a new foster family. The rest of the suitcases are in storage and will be given to children who are admitted to Walker over the next year.

 To find out more about Suitcases4Kids or to learn how you can help, visit their website.

Harry Rose goes the distance in his second annual 24-hour golf marathon

Professional golfer Harry Rose hit his first tee shot at Needham Golf Club at noon on Thursday, July 23rd, and he started walking. By the time he stopped walking he had played 205 consecutive holes over 24 hours, covering an estimated 50 miles.  It was, as he said, “like hitting a ball from here to Cape Cod.” 

Rose successfully completed his second 24-hour golf marathon last week, with contributed proceeds to benefit Walker and the Jimmy Fund. Contibutions are still coming in and the total has not been tallied, but Rose estimates that his golf all-nighter will yield at least $5,000 for students and families at Walker and for cancer research at Dana Farber.

Despite facing  heavy overnight rain that slowed them down and caused their glow-in-the-dark golf balls to malfunction, Rose and his playing partner Rich Hasenfus (who joined him for part of the marathon) collectively played 295 holes over two days.  That’s par 1,167, if you’re keeping score.

If you would like to join us in saluting Harry and this remarkable accomplishment, you can visit Walker’s Harry Rose Golf Marathon donation page to contribute.

And don’t forget to save the date for the annual Walker Fore the Children Golf Tournament on October 5, 2009 at the Weston Golf Club, with proceeds to benefit the students and families who depend upon the programs and services provided each year by Walker.  Harry will be there, too, as usual, to play 18 more holes for a great cause.

Wellesley Hills Junior Women’s Club brings the Comforts of Home to Walker

Walker recently received a grant from the Wellesley Hills Junior Women’s Club to underwrite Comforts of Home, a project to improve the personal living environments for children who are admitted into Walker residential treatment programs.

The Walker residential programs are designed to care for young children struggling with severe emotional and behavioral problems, while providing their families with integrated support and guidance. But some children arrive at Walker after being placed in the care of the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families. These children have often experienced trauma from abuse, neglect, and family disintegration, and they typically arrive at the Walker Needham campus scared and lonely, with little clothing and very few personal items.

The Comforts of Home program will provide these children with some special things—perhaps a Buzz Lightyear sweatshirt, Dora the Explorer curtains, a new Teddy Bear—personal items that will help them feel more at ease. Comforts of Home will help to make their time at Walker feel less “institutional.” And while Walker is certainly not a “home” for these children, we can ensure that it is a comfortable place, where children are safe while they learn the skills that will prepare them for a permanent family placement.

The Wellesley Hills Junior Women’s Club is a volunteer group that works to strengthen Wellesley and its surrounding communities through projects and events that include the publication of the Wellesley Phone Book, the Wellesley Marketplace Craft Festival and the Wellesley Kitchen Tour. This volunteer group also provides student scholarships and supports many other local charitable organizations.

A previous grant from WHJWC to Walker in 2008 helped to transform the physical environment at Hatoun House, one of seven Walker intensive residential treatment units for children between the ages of 5 and 13. The grant provided for new furniture and other improvements to the therapeutic environment, presenting students with the renewed expectation of respecting and caring for a newly refurbished and attractive communal living space.

In addition to their financial generosity, volunteers from the WHJWC have been visiting with Walker students several times each year since 2007. The group has “adopted” Hatoun House, regularly visiting the young children who live there and bringing supplies and creative ideas for special dinners, activities, and crafts projects.

Through their dedication to Walker and with projects like Comforts of Home, the talented women of the Wellesley Hills Junior Women’s Club are helping to provide a new model for philanthropy and active volunteering for those who are committed to strengthening our community.

Ronald McDonald House Charities awards grant to Walker

Last week, Walker was awarded a grant of $14,700 by Ronald McDonald House Charities of Eastern New England, Inc., for furniture and supplies to be used in residences on the Needham campus. The grant from the Windham, New Hampshire-based charity will underwrite new furniture for the communal living and dining spaces at two residences, including two sofas, two upholstered rocking chairs, coffee and end tables, a dining table and chairs.

“We are grateful for this generous investment in the Walker infrastructure and in the lives of our residential students,” says Walker executive director Richard W. Small. “We are very fortunate to have community partners like Ronald McDonald House Charities of Eastern New England.”

Organized in 1986, Ronald McDonald House Charities of Eastern New England provides financial support each year to organizations like Walker that are committed to serving children and families through health care, education and non-profit social service.  Improvements to the physical, living, and play environments on the Walker Needham campus as a result of this grant are expected to have a positive impact on the attitudes and behaviors of the children in the Walker intensive residential treatment program.

2009 Lives In Bloom Gala raises $300,000 to benefit Walker

On Saturday, May 9th, more than 350 people gathered at Westin Boston Waterfront hotel to celebrate Walker at the Lives in Bloom Gala. Thanks to the generosity of so many wonderful friends, the evening raised more than $300,000 to support Walker programs and services. 

After a lively silent auction that featured more than 75 items, celebrity host and auctioneer Billy Costa (of Kiss 108 FM and NECN’s TV Diner) brought his irreverent wit to the live auction, as guests bid on vacation packages, exclusive tickets to local sporting events, and unique, once-in-a-lifetime experiences. Together, the live and silent auctions raised more than $64,000. 

Longtime Walker friend Kari Culhane spoke about her volunteer experiences with children at the Walker School and urged Gala guests to visit the Needham campus program to get a firsthand look at the life-changing work of Walker. 

Board President Ben Thorndike praised the hard work of this year’s Lives in Bloom Gala committee, headed by co-chairs Kimberly Hatfield, Deidre Lockhart and Tara Sherman, who worked tirelessly to make the an evening a success. He also acknowledged the many generous Gala sponsors and underwriters whose support, despite a very difficult economy, enabled the event to exceed its fundraising goal. 

Executive director Richard W. Small paid tribute to the evening’s guests of honor, Linzee and Beth Coolidge, who were honored with the 2009 “Walker Distinguished Community Leadership Award” for their many years of charitable support for organizations serving children in the Boston community and in underdeveloped countries. Calling them “true philanthropists”, Dr. Small told the audience “this remarkable couple offers a blueprint for the ways that philanthropy improves the lives of those among us who are under-served or overlooked.” 

Thank you to everyone who made the 2009 Walker Lives In Bloom Gala an evening to remember. To learn more about the many other ways to support Walker, visit the Walker website. For information about sponsorship and volunteer opportunities at the 2010 Lives in Bloom Gala, please contact Nicole Darrell, coordinator of events and volunteers at Walker.

CWLA Children’s Voice spotlights Walker FCIS

The latest issue of Children’s Voice, published by the Child Welfare League of America, features a profile of Walker’s Family and Community Integration Services, a set of outreach support services for the families of high-risk children transitioning from highly structured programs back to  home and community. The article discusses the strategies and successful development of the program with Lisa Danovitch, director of marketing and contract management, and Christine Sullivan, the clinical team leader for FCIS.

FCIS was created in 2006, when it was becoming increasingly clear that many children who made significant progress as Walker residential students were struggling to maintain these gains after they returned home. Families who had been isolated within their communities needed help reconnecting with resources that could support a successful transition.

At Walker clinical assessment meetings where service plans were discussed, the creation of FCIS grew out of the need to answer the question, “What is it going to take for this child to live at home and remain in his or her school and community?“  The answer led to the creation of new flexibly designed  home-based services that can significantly increase the likelihood that a child with difficult emotional and behavioral challenges can live safely at home with a family.

You can read the article, From Campus to Community: Walker School Expands to In-Home Care, in the November/December 2008 issue of Children’s Voice  here.

Beacon High School students shine in 2009 Boston Globe Scholastic Art Awards

Three students at Beacon High School were winners in the 2009 Boston Globe Scholastic Art Awards, an art competition for students in grades 7 through 12 enrolled in public, private, and parochial schools in Massachusetts. The Beacon students were among those recognized from a field of 5,198 students across the state, and their work was recently displayed with more than 900 other winning pieces at the State Transportation Building in Boston.

Jasmine Gao with "Utopia"

Jasmine Gao won Silver Key for her painting “Utopia.” Isabel Everett’s photograph “Banana Hunt” was awarded an honorable mention. Melanie Snow won a Silver Key for her sculpture “Horse” and an honorable mention for an untitled drawing; Melanie was also one of 130 Gold Key Portfolio winners, awarded on the strength of a significant collection of her work.

Despite the relatively modest size of Beacon High School, its visual art program—led by art teacher Luke Brufee and photography teacher Veronique D’Entremont—continues to have success in the competition that features submitted paintings, sculpture, photography, film, mixed media, prints, clothing, and jewelry; last year’s competition also featured multiple winning Beacon students.

Luke and Veronique spend a lot of time helping Beacon students to see things from a new perspective, and the students’ trip to the exhibition of winning entries in Boston was an eye-opener for some of them. Luke remarked that “finished student work is usually displayed on Beacon’s walls for teachers and classmates to see, but at the exhibition I think the students realized that their art can carry energy beyond the school’s walls and affect people they may never meet. One person attending the exhibition offered to buy one of the pieces.”

Melanie Snow with "Horse"

The commitment to art education at Beacon continues to reflect the belief that the skills developed through arts participation help Beacon students to better understand and overcome the challenges that have impeded their academic progress and personal development. Through arts education, some Beacon students who would otherwise remain isolated and discouraged are able to see, clearly and for the first time, their own potential for success.

While Beacon High School’s strong showing in the Boston Globe Scholastic Art Awards is an indicator that the program rests on a solid foundation, Luke sees great potential for further development in future years. “I hope we can continue to build on the momentum from these students’ accomplishments. It would be exciting to eventually create a sequential art program at Beacon, so students with different skill levels could explore different media and techniques in new and challenging ways.”

InfoComm Shines project seeks to improve acoustics and learning in Walker School classrooms

On February 20th, an undergraduate class from the University of Hartford College of Engineering, Technology, and Architecture visited the Walker Needham campus to conduct an acoustical analysis of Walker School classrooms. The visit is part of the InfoComm Shines project, a 2008 initiative to promote the use of technology within Walker special education programs.

Led by Dr. Robert Celmer, professor, and Dr. Michelle Vigeant, assistant professor, from the acoustics program at the University of Hartford’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, the students conducted testing in three of the oldest classrooms at Walker—the school building originally constructed in 1971 has been serially retrofitted to accommodate various needs over the years. Measuring room acoustics and sound quality, the University of Hartford students hope to identify factors that can cause poor sound quality, and their analysis will be used to make recommendations for improving sound in all learning environments at the Walker School.

Among the challenges faced by some students at Walker are disorders that involve auditory integration. It should come as no surprise that students who cannot accurately hear or understand classroom speech often lose interest in classroom participation, fail to pay attention, and struggle to learn. Too often, the effects of these sometimes subtle acoustical problems in classrooms across the country go unrecognized or remain unresolved as they compete with other pressing academic concerns.

Last spring, Walker was selected by InfoComm International, the premier professional organization for audio-visual professionals, as a recipient of the InfoComm Shines award. Working with local partner Communications Design Associates of Canton, Massachusetts, Walker is receiving expert consultation and support along with product donations to improve the use of integrated audio-visual technology within our special education programs.

As we begin to better understand how significant auditory integration challenges can adversely affect children in their classrooms, this systematic assessment of the quality of sound in the older classrooms at Walker is a step toward a better understanding how we can continue to create effective learning environments for all Walker students.