Blog

On Thursday, March 21st, Ms. Mariah Rose Kilbourne, also known as Miss Wheelchair America 2013, came to the Arc of San Antonio to tell the Participants about her travels as Ms. Wheelchair America.

A Texas representative in the Miss Wheelchair America Pageant from the city of Converse, Ms. Mariah Rose Kilbourne was crowned Miss Wheelchair America 2013 in Providence, Rhode Island on August 11th, 2012. She will serve a one-year term as an advocate for the 54+ million Americans with disabilities. Read More →

During the Arc’s “Great American Leaders” themed week, the Arc Participants remembered the life and legacy of the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The Participants read a short biography that told of Dr. King’s teachings about equality and his “I Have a Dream” speech. We celebrated the second inauguration of President Barack Obama by making “Yes, We Can!” paper plate banners. Read More →

On Friday, November 16th, the other Arc Participants and myself made Mickey Mouse pilgrim hats to celebrated the  Thanksgiving holiday and the 84th anniversary of the creation of the world’s favorite cartoon character, the one and only, Mickey Mouse.

Mickey Mouse has always been one of my favorite Disney characters ever since I went to Disney World and met him in 1993 and in 2011. We learned that Mickey officially debuted on November 18th, 1928 in “Steamboat Willie,” one of the first sound cartoons. He went on to appear in over 130 films including, “The Band Concert” (1935), “Brave Little Tailor” (1938), and “Fantasia” (1940). Mickey appeared primarily in short films, but also occasionally in feature-length films. Nine of Mickey’s cartoons were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, one of which, “Lend a Paw,” won the award in 1942. In 1978, Mickey became the first cartoon character to have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Beginning in 1930, Mickey has also been featured extensively as a comic strip character.  Mickey has also appeared in comic books and in television series such as The Mickey Mouse Club, originally airing in 1955 to 1959 and again in 1989 to 1996. Walt Disney got the inspiration for Mickey Mouse from his old pet mouse he used to have on his farm. “Mortimer Mouse” had been Disney’s original name for the character before his wife, Lillian, convinced him to change it, and ultimately Mickey Mouse came to be.  My favorite quote from Walt Disney is, “I only hope that we never lose sight of one thing – that it was all started by a mouse.” ~Walt Disney.

On Tuesday, November 20th, we celebrated the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday by eating pumpkin pie and being with friends. The Participants made Thanksgiving arts and crafts, such as, Mayflower Paper Ships, Paper Plate Turkeys, and Native American Headdresses.

This Thanksgiving, I am thankful for my family and all of my friends at the Arc. I hope that everyone and their families had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

The Participants at the Arc of San Antonio decided that they wanted to give back to their community. They decided to donate to our soldiers in the Armed Forces that are stationed overseas. The Operation Interdependence program, which is run by the National Charity League is a civilian-to-military delivery system that serves as a program for Americans to demonstrate their support for our deployed military. For the next three months, The Arc will be collecting supplies that will be sent to the soldiers. If you have any questions about donating supplies to our soldiers, please feel free to contact Ms. Annette Centeno (210) 490-4300, extension 106 or acenteno@arc-sa.org.  Read More →

I love to read books. Especially, books that are about magical beings, like Harry Potter. I started loving books because when I was a little girl, my mom couldn’t afford cable. So, she would take me to the local library so that I could read the children’s books and listen to the librarian at story time.  Read More →

The month of August is one of my favorites at the Arc because we have so much fun!

On Thursday, August 23rd, we had our Ninth Annual Life Enrichment Program Summer Talent Show, hosted by the Arc’s musically gifted staff member, Leon S. There was lots of singing and dancing. Read More →

This time, I’m writing my blog to ask everyone who reads it to go to: http://www.teamupchallenge.com to vote for The Arc of San Antonio in the 2012 Summer Team up Challenge is presented by AT&T.

The Summer Team up Challenge is a service-learning initiative that encourages youth at local nonprofits used what they are learning to the real world, bringing education alive in powerful ways. Ten teams have received $1,000 to work on their projects. Each champion organization will receive $10,000 for their work and contribution to improving our community.

The Teen Club at The Arc of San Antonio created a project tor the Team Up Challenge.  The project, TEAM UP 4 Pets is providing dog and cat food for pet loving home-bound seniors and families experiencing financial hardship. Each day, our teens scoop, package and label gallon-sized bags of dog and cat food that will be donated to Meals on Wheels and local food pantries. Too often, home bound seniors will share their human food with their 4-legged friends. As Kenyatta says, “You can’t just give dogs jalapenos.” This project allows pets and their owners to each have their own nutritional food.

The teens set a goal to package 1,200 pounds and so far, they have packaged 1,400 pounds of pet food! A group of teens started delivering cat and dog food to home bound seniors with pets last week. One woman was so happy and told the teens she was almost out of food for her two cats. Read More →