Join us on Monday, July 9, 2012 for SPARC’s 13th Annual Golf Outing at Mahopac Golf Club!

Included: 18 holes golf and cart, Lunch, Dinner, Open Bar, contests, prizes, auction, hole-in-one car prize!

Fundraising supports SPARC trips, scholarships, dances, special events, adaptive materials and other vital programs.

Click here to download the flyer and registration form.

Payment for Golf Event
Easy and secure, just select the amount below. There is a 2.2% + $.30 service fee to process online payments.

Click here for order and dedication/ad form.

Yearbook  $25                           Ads: $25, $50, $100

Return the completed form by mail with check to:

SPARC, Inc.
3045 Gomer Street
Yorktown Heights, NY 10598

OR, email your information to info@sparcinc.org and make your payment here.

Note: Online prices include a 2.2% + $.30 service fee to process online payments.

You helped make “The Road to Morocco” a huge success as our fundraiser and a great deal of fun on March 31, 2012, at the Sleepy Hollow Country Club.

We appreciate our 2012 Honorees:

• Citibank – Regina Servidio, Branch Manager, Vice President
• H.O.P.E. For Youth Foundation - Jim Witt
• The Silverberg Family

YORKTOWN — For Gwen Jagde, the best programs for her son Michael are those that let him do things kids his age without special needs get to do.

Like just hanging out with friends on a Friday night.

“The idea for them is to just be with the group and just hang out like everybody else does,” the Ardsley resident said of Teen Time, a program run by Yorktown-based SPARC that Michael, 19, has attended for years.

“They look at all of the children’s needs,” Jagde said of SPARC, or Special Program and Resource Connection. “Whether it’s academic, whether it’s behavioral and whether it’s emotional, and all of that gets tied into that recreation piece.”

That recreation piece is essential to the lives of the children and adults SPARC has served since Rose Rothe founded the nonprofit in 1989.

In a conversation at SPARC’s main offices in the basement of her Yorktown home, Rothe said that funding these days for such programs is tight. Grants and scholarships are decreasing even as the demand for SPARC’s 75 weekly programs countywide is up.

“A lot of our population have not had the opportunity to explore many different leisure activities and find the two or three passions that make their life and just turn them on and give them the opportunity to get out in the world and fulfill their own path,” she said. “That’s what we try to do for people.”

So whether it’s a cooking class, Zumba, horseback riding or film production, SPARC’s 1,000 monthly program participants have a range of options.

To help offset costs, SPARC is looking to its biggest and longest-running fundraiser Wednesday. The 12th annual Charity Golf Outing at Somers Pointe Gold Club in Heritage Hills will feature 18 holes of golf, a golf clinic, silent auction and a hole-in-one contest where the prize is a brand new BMW.

Rothe said slots are still available. The cost is $195, which includes lunch, dinner, golf and a gift bag.

SPARC’s other annual fundraiser is a spring benefit in Sleepy Hollow that will feature a Moroccan theme and a whiskey tasting. The idea, she said, is to make these events memorable.

Similar thinking goes into SPARC’s programs, which began as partnerships with local group homes and grew into multi-age offerings throughout Westchester.

These days, in fact, those living in group homes are harder to reach as a lack of funding has led many providers to offer recreation programs in-house. But SPARC’s experience and expertise aren’t so easily duplicated, Rothe said.

SPARC’s LINK-Up program offers daytime instructional and recreational activities for young adults. One is run out of Pace University in White Plains and another is launching in Ossining next month.

Kids Express is an after-school program offered in Lakeland, Yorktown and Somers that teaches all kindergarten through fifth-grade children character building, creativity and social skills.

Lara Perkins of Mount Kisco credits SPARC with being receptive to parents’ ideas and adapting programs to changing needs. Perkins helped develop SPARC’s Summer Magic half-day camp program for children with autism like her son, Noah Shenkin, who is 7.

She has found few other programs for Noah and said many people mistake the difficulty children with autism have with socialization with a desire not to socialize at all. They very much want to, Perkins said, but need to be shown how.

“Playing and making friends are such a part of being a child and really being a human being,” she said.

Dear Soldier,

I can’t express how thankful I am that you have given selflessly your life to defend our country and freedom.  How can we ever thank you?  My feelings of admiration and some treats and many prayers for you and your families are all I have to offer.   I can only hope that one day I too will have the courage and bravery to stand with you in future endeavors.  I have Autism but the battles I struggle with seem meaningless to the battles you encounter daily.

Thank you aned God Bless.

Paul Haggerty Jr.

(sent with packages created and sent by Teen Time youth in Yorktown)

Starting in Yorktown School District in 1996, Kids Express expanded to Lakeland, Somers and last year, my dream of bringing a low cost, high quality inclusionary social skills program to Hendrick Hudson schools finally came true!   Thanks to the commitment of SPARC’s leadership, who worked so diligently with parents and administration of our district, the program is a fantastic success! Each week Kids Express uses games, crafts, role playing and other activities to engage the children in experiences focused on making and being a good friend, expressing themselves and dealing with socially challenging situations. The group leaders are professional, supportive, nurturing, enthusiastic and engaging!  My son is now in his second season of Kids Express, his “Friendship Club,” which he looks forward to every week.  I was so thrilled a few weeks ago when he asked for a playdate with another kid in his group and saw my precise goal for him met!